THE APPOINTMENT OF COLLEGE OFFICERS. 171 



tiori from a depth of nineteen hundred fathoms, and which was totally 



blind. 



Professor Leydig remarks upon this point that the luminosity is, 

 for the most part, only a subsidiary shining dependent on the secre- 

 tion of a fatty body, and that the significance of the formations as 

 electrical and pseudo-electrical organs is not altered on that account. 

 We might also remark on this subject that, according to Kolliker's 

 observations, the luminosity of many animals is under the influence of 

 the will, so that the innervation of the phosphorescent organ no longer 

 seems superfluous ; and that, according to Jousset de Bellesme, glow- 

 worms cease to shine as soon as their principal ganglion is removed. 

 Moreover, according to Bellesme's observations, the glow may be pro- 

 duced by electrical as well as by nervous excitation. At all events, 

 the hypothesis which I have submitted appears to me to be worthy of 

 a searching examination. Translated from Kosmos. 



-<++- 



TH? APPOINTMENT OF COLLEGE OFFICERS. 



By F. W. CLAEKE. 



THERE are to-day in the United States over four hundred institu- 

 tions claiming the title of college or university. Some of them are 

 really, a few confessedly, only high-schools or academies ; and between 

 these and the highest there is every diversity of grade. In them there 

 are over four hundred " presidents," " principals," " chancellors," or 

 whatever the heads of the institutions may be called, and some thou- 

 sands of professors or teachers. This great body of men and women 

 is continually changing ; yearly there are deaths, removals, and resigna- 

 tions ; yearly there are a multitude of new appointments. The pur- 

 pose of this essay is to inquire how such appointments are made, and 

 how they ought to be made ; what considerations do govern, and 

 what should govern, the selection of college officers. 



At a casual glance it would seem as if little could be said upon the 

 subject ; of course appointments are made by regular boards of trus- 

 tees, and of course each appointment is determined by the peculiar fit- 

 ness of the successful candidate for the position he is to occupy. Such 

 is the theory, but the application thereof may be exceedingly elastic. 

 Strange standards of fitness are frequently adopted ; and appointments 

 to responsible positions are often made upon principles which would 

 be recognized in no other kind of business except the trade of partisan 

 politics. In political life an efficient officer may be displaced for mere 

 party reasons, and supplanted by some one altogether his inferior. In 

 the college world, slight shades of difference in theological belief are 

 at times similarly potent. 



