66 ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE. [CHAP.
easy to extend the list considerably, if I took a slightly lower level of celebrity for my limit.
Every one of these 1.3 men when he died, was, or would have been, if he had not previously outlived his reputation, the subject of numerous obituary notices, and his death an event of sufficient public interest to warrant his being reckoned as an "eminent man." I formerly calculated, and have since seen no reason to doubt my conclusions, that the annual obituary of the United Kingdom does not include more than 50 men who are eminent in that sense. Therefore this small band of 660 individuals, contains almost one-fourth as much eminence as is annually produced by the United Kingdom. A different criterion of eminence may be found in the number of celebrated men reared in the
universities, whither a large proportion of the brightest youths of the nation find their way. I examined the list of honours at Cambridge
in the ten years 1820-9 inclusive, and also the four years 1842-5, of which I happen to have some personal knowledge, whence it appeared
