UNIVERSITY CONTROL. 399 



naires; the character of their work compels close contact with the world. 

 Museums of applied chemistry, physics, biology and geology are notable 

 features in all the larger universities and are not unknown in the 

 smaller institutions. Social science and psychology no longer deal in 

 merely a priori discussions; they deal with facts for which search is 

 made everywhere. 



But far more important is the change in the professor's relation 

 to his work. And here reference may be made parenthetically to a 

 matter of some importance. The college curriculum of forty years ago 

 was, to say the least, elementary. A reasonably good graduate was fit 

 to be tutor in any branch and a professional man, who had kept up his 

 literary tastes was not thought to be presumptuous when he applied for 

 any one of the chairs. The college president was usually professor of 

 mental and moral science, because a clergyman of rather more than 

 average ability was, of course, fitted for that chair. But in this day, 

 special, prolonged preparation is required for any chair, be it philosophy, 

 history or chemistry. The progress which this condition indicates has 

 led to an unforeseen difficulty which is becoming a subject of anxiety. 

 For a long period the college curriculum, framed on narrow lines, re- 

 mained practically unchanged and the secondary schools, with small 

 equipment, prepared pupils in a leisurely way. As a rule the prepara- 

 tion was good and the boys entered college practically on a level. Within 

 twenty years our colleges have not only increased the entrance require- 

 ments for some parts of the old course, but they have introduced new 

 courses, even new departments, each with special entrance requirements, 

 often very high. In great part, the secondary schools, with their lim- 

 ited resources, have been unable to increase their staff so as to keep pace 

 with increasing demands from the colleges, and the students from dif- 

 ferent schools, though nominally alike in sum of preparatory work, are 

 no longer approximately on the same plane. The college instructor, 

 who has to do with the earlier years, finds himself burdened not merely 

 with the work legitimately belonging to him, but also with much of the 

 preliminary training. This combination of preparatory drill and 

 advanced work is perplexing. 



It is very true that the burden of changed conditions in respect to 

 college work is not felt equally in all departments. Professors in charge 

 of some of the older chairs have an increased burden, in that the method 

 of teaching differs, yet, taken as a whole, matters, in so far as under- 

 graduate work is concerned, remain with them pretty much as they 

 were thirty years ago. But the teaching of concrete subjects is so com- 

 pletely changed both in matter and manner that one must dwell some- 

 what in detail upon the conditions ; the more so because they have come 

 about so rapidly that even professors in other departments are unaware 

 of their extent. 



