THE PROGEESS OF SCIENCE. 



377 



as it is of tlie utmost importance for 

 scientific leaders to familiarize them- 

 selves with the teaching of science in 

 the public schools. We ought to 

 know, for example, why the number of 

 high school students studying physics 

 decreased during the past ten years 

 from twenty-four to eighteen per cent, 

 wliilc the number studying Latin in- 

 creased from forty to fifty per cent. 



THE PROBLEM OF THE COLLEGE. 

 The most interesting discussion at 

 the meeting of the National Educa- 

 tional Association was one on the 

 length of the baccalaureate course and 

 the preparation for the professional 

 schools, in which Presidents Eliot, 

 Harper and Butler and Deans West 

 and Ilering were the official speakers. 

 It is a most important question. There 

 are now somewhat over 100,000 stu- 

 dents in our colleges, universities and 

 technical schools, and somewhat over 

 50,000 students in our professional 

 schools of theology, law and medicine. 

 In 1901, the last year for which the 

 records have been published by the 

 Bureau of Education, there were grad- 

 uated from the colleges and technical 

 schools 16,513 students, of whom 

 11,463 were men and 5,050 were wo- 

 men. Fifty difTerent kinds of degrees 

 were given to these graduates; but the 

 classification of the commissioner of 

 education is apparently faulty in at- 

 tributing students of engineering to 

 the colleges rather than to the profes- 

 sional schools. The number of regular 

 academic bachelor degrees conferred 

 was as follows: A.B., 7,943; B.S , 

 3,023; Ph.B., 1,112; B.L., 716. Of 

 higher degrees the numbers were A.M., 

 1,280; M.S., 192; Ph.M., 22; M.L., 12; 

 Ph.D., 343; Sc.D., 5. From the pro- 

 fessional schools there were: gradu- 

 ates in theology, 1,585; in law, 3,306; 

 in medicine, 5,472; in dentistry, 

 2,311; in pharmacy, 1,373; in veterin- 

 ary medicine, 109. The number of 

 students in theology has remained 

 practically stationary since 1890; 



medical students have increased 73 

 per cent., and students of law to the 

 remarkable extent of 202 per cent. In 

 this period the men attending the col- 

 leges have increased 68 per cent, and 

 the women 159 per cent., a relation 

 which some will find gratifying and 

 others will regard as ominous. The 

 large figures do not represent the real 

 increase in students, as the high 

 school is now doing in large measure 

 what was formerly done by the college. 

 The increase in the number of high 



Number of Students in Public and Private 

 Secondary Schools. 



school students, as shown in the ac- 

 companying chart, is truly remarkable. 

 Worthy of note is also the fact that 

 the increase is entirely a matter of the 

 public secondary schools. 



Of the 650,000 students in high, 

 normal and preparatory schools, the 

 100,000 in colleges and the 50,000 in 

 professional schools, the college stu- 

 dents appear to cause the most diffi- 

 culty to educators. The relation of 

 the college to the high school, on the 



