4 i4 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



a professor who is willing and com- 

 petent to stay in service. To benefit 

 the professor, his salary should be paid 

 for life and he should render such 

 services as he can to advantage. The 

 dismissal of professors on pensions 

 throughout the country against their 

 will may have the unfortunate effect 

 of breaking down the permanent tenure 

 of the professor's office, which has done 

 more than anything else to give it dig- 

 nity and to attract to it able men 

 willing to serve for small salaries. 



The act of incorporation of the Car- 

 negie Foundation provided for two 

 kinds of retiring allowances : ( 1 ) for 

 long and meritorious service, and (2) 

 for old age, disability or other suffi- 

 cient reason. At the last meeting of 

 the trustees, the retiring allowances 

 for length of service were withdrawn, 

 not only for the future but also retro- 

 actively from those to whom they had 

 been promised. Dr. Pritchett, the 

 president, states that the ground for 

 withdrawal was that the rule worked 

 badly: Dr. Jordan, one of the trustees, 



states that it was financially impos- 

 sible to carry it out. Both results 

 might have been foreseen, but neither 

 ■ seems to justify the foundation in 

 breaking its engagements. The editor 

 of the New York Evening Post does 

 not hesitate to charge " a misty notion 

 of the nature of moral obligations " 

 and a violation of " the ordinary stan- 

 dards of honorable conduct between 

 man and man." 



The foundation supplies an addi- 

 tional income to a number of colleges 

 and universities; but this appears to 

 be the end of its usefulness. The at- 

 tempt of an energetic president to lord 

 it over the educational development of 

 the country has done some temporary 

 harm; but the money by which he can 

 purchase submission will soon be ex- 

 hausted. It has been a sorry sight 

 to see institutions raising standards 

 which they can not and should not 

 maintain, freeing themselves nominally 

 from denominational control— one has 

 offered to establish an undenomina- 

 tional holding company — and most of 



This photograph, showing a part of Harvard University in 1857 or 1858, is 

 contributed to the Harvard Graduates' Magazine by Professor F. W. Putnam. The 

 small square building of wood on the right of the church is the Agassiz Museum. 

 Massachusetts Hall and Harvard Hall are shown on the right. The Agassiz Museum 

 Building was erected in 1850. After the first section of the present Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology was built, in 1859-60, the old Museum Building was moved to 

 the site now occupied by the Peabody Museum. It was remodeled for living-rooms 

 for Agassiz's students and assistants. 



