6o6 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



mans themselves are far from considering their universities perfect. 

 Intense reform movements are reshaping the entire university life, but 

 it is characteristic that no so-called reform propositions are taking hold 

 which limit in any way the freedom of study. The Germans do not 

 want more examinations by which the student becomes more or less a 

 school pupil, although they believe in thorough discipline and super- 

 vision even in the highest classes of the Gymnasium, which corresponds 

 to the average American college. The most wholesome change in the 

 student life is the quiet but steady repression of the vulgar beer-drink- 

 ing habits with all the noisy accessories. The entire student life, has 

 become cleaner and more modern. The old traditions had come from a 

 time when the young academic scholar wanted to emphasize the con- 

 trast between his eager life and the dullness of the philistine crowd. 

 But modern times have changed this contrast by bringing life and 

 interest and political activity into those crowds and the student has 

 thus lost his right to live a life entirely different from that of his social 

 surroundings. The rush of young Germany toward the university is 

 still steadily increasing. There are about 63,000 students in the twenty- 

 one high seats of learning, 12,000 in the law schools, 12,000 in the 

 medical schools, about 4,000 students of divinity and the remainder in 

 the so-called philosophical faculty which corresponds to the American 

 graduate school. It is characteristic that the chief increase has come 

 to the universities in the large cities in which the old-fashioned student 

 life has always played a small role. In Berlin there are 14,000 persons 

 attending the lectures and in Munich 7,000, in Leipzig 6,000. Yet espe- 

 cially those universities in small towns which are famous for the beauty 

 of landscape have had their proportionate growth. In lovely Freiburg in 

 Baden the one thousandth student was welcomed with a celebration at 

 the time when I came there as a young instructor. Becently they have 

 celebrated the coming of the three thousandth student. The rapid 

 growth of the academic communities strongly suggests the foundation 

 of new universities. Miinster in Westphalia grew into a full-fledged 

 university only a few years ago, Frankfort-on-Main is at present fight- 

 ing with enthusiasm for the development of its academy into a univer- 

 sity. The Prussian Diet is still seriously objecting to this ambition of 

 the citizens of Frankfort, as it fears that the smaller universities in the 

 neighborhood would be the sufferers, but the university of Frankfort is 

 surely to come. The same may be said of the university of Hamburg, 

 which so far consists of a number of interrelated institutes. But while 

 the universities are growing in number and branching off in new and 

 ever new specialties, they are also being supplemented by new forms of 

 scholarly activity. The most characteristic new feature which gains 

 increasing importance is the erection of research institutes, especially 

 in the field of natural science and medicine. There investigations can 



