778 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 542. 



the anthropologists of the day into oppos- 

 ing schools, one chiefly American, the other 

 chiefly European; as a practical problem 

 of applied science, it has already engaged 

 the attention of the world's leading states- 

 men (most of them approaching it empiric- 

 ally under the law that doing precedes 

 thinking) and, with such help as they have 

 been able to secure from science, they have 

 solved it to their satisfaction, and have de- 

 clared in numberless constitutional and 

 statutory provisions that red and black, if 

 not yellow, men share with whites the po- 

 tency (at least) of enlightened citizenship, 

 and should be led and aided and educated 

 toward that goal despite the handicap of 

 heredity. Here the highest statecraft and 

 the most advanced anthropology strike 

 hands; the statesman argues from his own 

 experience that lowly men may be raised 

 up, and hence that it were heartless to 

 strike them down ; the scientist but sums 

 more numerous observations when he 

 traces the upward trend of humanity ; and 

 both stand firmly on the rock of experi- 

 ential knowledge. True, practical ques- 

 tions involved in the general problem are 

 constantly arising : Can the Apache at San 

 Carlos best be led toward citizenship by 

 penalties for misdeeds, by rewards for 

 righteousness, or by a combination of the 

 two ? Does the hereditary structure of the 

 Negrito of interior Luzon debar him from 

 hope of free citizenship, including that 

 rectitude of conduct and nobility of im- 

 pulse which free citizenship requires? Can 

 the fellahin of Egypt be lifted from the 

 plane of subjection to despotism to that of 

 intelligent loyalty as royal subjects? Will 

 the educational qualification in Maryland 

 elevate the franchise? These are among 

 the multifarious and ever-rising questions 

 involved in the problem; and while the old 

 anthropology stands aloof, they are receiv- 

 ing yearly solution at the hands of modern 

 science and modern statecraft. Fortunate- 



ly, this present problem of anthropology is 

 no less practical than were those confront- 

 ing pioneer Puritans and Cavaliers in axi 

 earlier century, and like those it must be 

 wrought out through living experience;, 

 still more fortunately, the chief factors in 

 the problem are now grasped by students 

 taught in the severe school of the settlers — 

 grasped so firmly that little remains undone 

 save the bringing up of loiterers who linger 

 in the haze of half-knowledge and barken 

 idly to bookish echoes of simpler science. 



Connected with this problem is another 

 no less burning: Does the mental mechan- 

 ism of mankind react on physical structure 

 in such wise as to control the development 

 of individuals and types? As an academic 

 problem this is well-nigh lost in the dust 

 of ill-aimed discussion (relating to the 

 hereditability of acquired characters and a 

 dozen other points) which it were indis- 

 creet to stir; yet half an eye can see 

 that, whatsoever pedagogues proclaim, the 

 pupils are building bone and muscle, in- 

 creasing strength and stature, and mani- 

 festly promoting brain-power and prolong- 

 ing life by judicious regimen. As a prac- 

 tical problem this might be passed over,, 

 since the world's leading millions are so 

 well advanced in doing that thinking may 

 be trusted to follow duly (perchance soon 

 enough to let the masters learn the lessons 

 their pupils live), were it not for the ever- 

 rising ancillary questions as to rate and 

 trend of the progress. Thus, mean length 

 of life, or viability, is increasing, especially 

 among more advanced peoples, who live 

 longer in proportion to their advancement; 

 yet, although Mansfield ]\Ierriman com- 

 puted a few years ago that the median age 

 of Americans has gone up five yeare since 

 1850, while the twelfth census reported 

 that our mean age of death had advanced 

 from 31.1 years to 35.2 years in a decade, 

 it can not be said that the rate of increase 

 is known— and still less are the factors of 



