States and 1,472 from Great Britain. These figures indicate that there are more scientific men in the United States than in Great Britain, practically all those from the latter country having been included. The work being an Anglo-American compilation, the numbers are not comparable with those of the continental nations, but there is perhaps no reason why any one of these should have been favored in the selection of names. In so far as this is the case, the numbers of scientific men of some distinction in the different countries are as follows: Germany, 1,280; France, 423; AustriaHungary, 236; Italy, 215; Switzerland, 214; Holland, 155; Sweden, 109; Russia, 97; Denmark, 94; Belgium, 90; Norway, 88; Portugal, 49; Spain, 41. It thus appears that Germany has three times as many scientific men as France. The population of Germany Is considerably larger, but this was not the case at the time the men were born, they being on the average about 50 years of age and practically none of them under forty. The number of men in France over 45 years is only about one million less than in Germany, though there are twice as many children in Germany.
In order to compare the smaller nations with the larger we must take account of their size. The numbers of scientific men for each million of the present populations of the different nations are as follows: Switzerland, 58; Norway, 37; Denmark, 34; Holland, 26; Sweden, 20; Germany, 19; Belgium, 12; France, 11; Portugal, 9; Italy, 6; Austria-Hungary, 5; Spain, 2; Russia 1. In this comparison the smaller nations show to advantage, and this is a factor that should be kept in mind in any redistribution of empire. Switzerland leads all other nations, followed by the Scandinavian countries and Holland. Belgium is before France, and Portugal is close to it. In so far as the production of scientific men is a measure of civilization, Austria-Hungary and Italy fare badly and Russia is far behind all other nations.
A study of the distribution of the more distinguished men of science was contributed to this journal (October, 1908) by Dr. E. C. Pickering, the director of the Harvard College Observatory. Taking the scientific men who were members of at least two foreign academies, they were distributed as follows: Germany, 29, France 12, England 13, the United States 6, Austria 4, Italy, Sweden, Holland, Norway, Denmark and Russia, 3 each. The recognition of scientific eminence is likely to come late in life and these men were mostly old; half of the six distinguished Americans—Agassiz, Hill and Xewcomb—have since died. The present distribution of the foreign members of the National Academy of Sciences is as follows: German 18, Great Britain 11, France 4, Holland 4, Russia and Sweden, two each, Austria, Italy, Norway and Switzerland, one each. Here again France does not compare favorably with Germany. Among its four representatives are two distinguished mathematicians, Darboux and Picard, the other two being Deslandres, the astronomer, and Barrois, the paleontologist. They are scarcely the peers of the four Dutch representatives, Kapteyn, Lorenz, de Vries and van der Waals, and are apparently less distinguished than the Germans and the English.
If we select the greatest men from the list compiled by Dr. Pickering or from the foreign membership of the National Academy, it is not easy lo find any who can be placed beside Helmholtz or Pasteur, whose portraits happen to be reproduced in this place, it may be an error of perspective that those nearer to us seem smaller. But when Germany names its greatest men it goes back to Goethe and Kant, and the scientific men who have died or have ceased their active work appear to be greater than those who are now filling the chairs in the universities.
This does not mean that present work in science is less important than
