176 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE HONOK SYSTEM IN AMEEICAN COLLEGES 



By Professor W. LE CONTE STEVENS 



WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY 



ACKITIC who was fond of -unusual statements once declared 

 that ignorance and unconsciousness are the best tests of good 

 health. The man whose digestive powers are unimpaired has no con- 

 clusive evidence of his possession of a stomach. Hunger may be re- 

 ferred to as an aching void, but the discomfort is not localized until 

 the digestive machinery gets out of order and pain tells the victim 

 that in some way he has abused an internal friend whose unknown 

 presence has been a source of quiet serenity. 



In American educational circles the honor system in colleges has 

 been a subject of discussion only since the close of the civil war. Prior 

 to that time, like the unobtrusive stomach, it had long performed its 

 function peacefully in some parts of our land, while the general public 

 was ignorant of its existence. Of late years there has been enough 

 internal disturbance to suggest the presence of a collegiate organ that 

 demands recognition. 



It is not possible to say just when or where the honor system had 

 its birth. It had indeed no birth, but was merely a manifestation of 

 social conditions at the south. During recent years the annual cata- 

 logues of the University of Virginia have contained the statement that 

 in June, 1842, after the system of surveillance in written examinations 

 had been found ineffectual, Judge Henry St. George Tucker, professor 

 of law, induced the faculty to adopt the following resolution: 



That in all future written examinations for distinction and other honors 

 of the university each candidate shall attach to the written answers presented 

 by him on such examination a certificate in the following words: I, A. B., do 

 hereby certify on honor that I have derived no assistance during the time of 

 this examination from any source whatever, whether oral, written, or in print, 

 in giving the above answers. 



The editor of the catalogue adds ' this was the beginning of the 

 honor system.' Such a conclusion is warrantable if understood to 

 mean that this was probably the first formal adoption of a college code 

 of examination ethics that had been previously in existence without 

 formal legislation. The South Carolina College has within the present 

 year celebrated the centennial anniversary of its organization, which 

 occurred twenty years before the incorporation of the University of 

 Virginia. In a sermon delivered on January 8, 1905, the chaplain of 

 the college, Dr. Flinn, declares that ' in the very beginning of the his- 



