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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



professors, and for the professors in 

 turn to teach and know all the stu- 

 dents, and to feel personally respon- 

 sible for the work of the whole insti- 

 tution. It is, however, somewhat diffi- 

 cult to decide how the number of stu- 

 dents shall be limited. According to 

 the committee it should be done by 

 competitive examinations. This, how- 

 ever, is a doubtful expedient, as the 

 preparation for a competitive exam- 

 ination is not necessarily the best edu- 

 cational method, and young students 

 who can pass such an examination with 

 the highest grades are not always those 

 who will be successful in their later 

 work. It would apparently be a better 

 plan to admit all promising students 

 and to drop a considerable percentage 

 at the close of the first year. Under 

 these conditions students are likely to 

 work well at the start, whereas if they 

 pass a competitive examination of 

 which they do not particularly approve 

 they may feel that they deserve some 

 relaxation. It would probably be de- 

 sirable for Amherst to decrease the 

 number of students by giving up the 

 degree of B.S., unless the college is 

 prepared to offer adequate courses in 

 the natural and exact science. The 

 degree of B.S. at certain colleges is 

 scarcely more reputable than the de- 

 gree of B.E. — bachelor of the elements 

 — which is given by one college to the 

 students who fail to obtain any other 

 degree. 



The third recommendation of the 

 committee will certainly be approved 

 by college professors. The maximum 

 salary at Amherst is $3,000 and the 

 committee finds that, on the average, 

 professors spend a thousand dollars in 

 excess of their salary. This fact is in 

 itself not significant, for it might 

 mean that one or two professors had 

 large incomes. To make the figures of 

 value the committee should give the 

 number of professors who spend on 

 their living more than three thousand 

 dollars. It is, however, well known 

 that college and university professors 

 receive relatively smaller salaries than 

 men at the head of the other profes- 



sions, and if a college such as Amherst 

 wishes to obtain and retain for its 

 faculty men of the highest ability, the 

 salaries must be increased. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS 



We record with regret the deaths of 

 Dr. Samuel H. Scudder, of Cambridge, 

 eminent for his contributions to ento- 

 mology; of Dr. Stanford Emerson 

 Chaille, for forty-one years professor 

 of physiology and pathological anat- 

 omy in the medical department of 

 Tulane University; of Dr. Edward 

 Burnett Vorhees, professor of agricul- 

 ture at Butgers College and director 

 of the New Jersey Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station ; of Professor William 

 Russell Dudley, professor of botany in 

 Stanford University; of Nathaniel 

 Wright Lord, professor of mineralogy 

 and metallurgy in the Ohio State Uni- 

 versity; of Mrs. Williamina Paton 

 Fleming, curator of astronomical pho- 

 tographs in the Harvard College Ob- 

 ; servatory, and of Dr. N. Story Mas- 

 kelyne, from 1856 to 1895 professor of 

 mineralogy at Oxford. 



Professor E. C. Pickering, director 

 of the Harvard College Observatory, 

 has been created knight of the Prus- 

 sian order Pour le merite. Simon 

 Newcomb and Alexander Agassiz are 

 the only other American men of science 

 on whom this honor has been conferred. 

 — At its annual meeting the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences voted to 

 award the Rumford premium to Pro- 

 fessor James Mason Crafts "for his 

 investigations in high temperature 

 thermometry and the exact determina- 

 tion of new fixed reference points on 

 the thermometric scale.' 



During his recent visit to Washing- 

 ton at the time of the annual meeting 

 of the National Academy of Sciences, 

 Sir John Murray presented a fund of 

 six thousand dollars to the academy 

 for the purpose of founding an Alex- 

 ander Agassiz gold medal which shall 

 be awarded to scientific men in any 

 part of the world for original contribu- 

 tions to the science of oceanography. 



