8 2 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



complain. The youngest freshman knows that success on the athletic 

 field is not the chief end of man, and he is quick to note the falsetto in 

 the football enthusiasm of the middle-aged and elderly professors when 

 they pretend that the scores of the teams are the chief topic of academic 

 interest. 



Lack of appreciation of the educational value of college organization 

 has blinded some educators to the merits of college fraternities. These 

 organizations have a long and interesting history which can be traced 

 back to the medieval nations at Bologna, Paris and the other early 

 European universities. At present the college officer is likely to regard 

 them rather as an administrative danger than as an educational oppor- 

 tunity. In our present system the fraternities are in effect if not in 

 fact the vestigial remains of a university constitution in which the 

 student body and the alumni played a vastly more important part than 

 they do with us. A revival of academic freedom would restore the 

 fraternities to their healthy functions. Now, as Birdseye and others 

 too plainly show, a college fraternity, like other rudimentary organs, is 

 liable under unfavorable conditions to deterioration and disease. 



Again, if the students and the college in general with a fuller 

 measure of academic freedom and an increased sense of their social 

 responsibility would reconsider the curriculum and methods of instruc- 

 tion in the light of democratic principles, many wholesome changes 

 could be brought about. 



Besides instruction in sociology and the social aspects of pedagogy, 

 economics, history, English and foreign literature already spoken of, 

 I wish to mention here only one other subject, namely, physiology. 

 Recent developments in natural science, above all, progress in bacteri- 

 ology, have made the pursuit of this subject in college a pressing need. 

 In addition to courses in scientific physiology we should have in every 

 college popular courses on applied physiology for all the students, deal- 

 ing with the vital questions of hygiene. Such courses are necessary for 

 the guidance of the undergraduates in reference to diet, sleep, habits of 

 study and of personal health in general. For, keeping our social pur- 

 pose in view, it is not hard to see that one of the chief endeavors of the 

 college should be to disseminate through the schools and in the homes 

 the knowledge of hygienic science that is so necessary for the comfort 

 and welfare of the people. 



The social test of college culture would suggest many changes in the 

 content and method of other college courses. The spirit of pedantry, 

 to which all academic life is liable at times to fall victim, would be recti- 

 fied by the challenge : " What is the social value and import of this ? " 

 If every college course were in its content socially important, then the 

 students taking part would work more spontaneously, and the present 

 methods of dictation and exact prescription would give way to greater 



