THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



185 



retirement. As part of his salary an 

 annuity is paid for by the university 

 at the rate perhaps of $300 a year, and 

 his salary is that much larger than the 

 sum he receives. The income of the 

 Carnegie Foundation should be admin- 

 istered in some such way. One of the 

 most important results of the scheme 

 will be the pressure brought on the 

 state universities to establish pension 

 systems. The College of the City of 

 New York has already provided liberal 

 pensions, and the example will doubt- 

 less be followed elsewhere. 



If eleemosynary features can be elim- 

 inated from the Carnegie Foundation, 

 the matter is reduced to a phase of the 

 world-wide conflict between individ- 

 ualism and socialism. Should the col- 

 lege teacher be taken care of by society, 

 or should he take care of himself? 

 Much can certainly be urged in favor 

 of life tenure of office, fixed salaries 

 and pensions for university professors. 

 They are thereby set free to do their 

 work, exempt to a considerable extent 

 from anxiety over their material sup- 

 port, from commercial standards, from 

 intrigues and possible injustice, from 

 hasty work, from fear of the conse- 

 quences of free speech. There are many 

 who will develop the highest scholar- 

 ship and produce the best research work 

 under these conditions. But there are 

 some who go to sleep comfortably in 

 such a utopia and others who find it 

 irksome. It tends towards dependence 

 on the part of the professor and des- 

 potism on the part of the administra- 

 tion, to small salaries, to petty rival- 

 ries for honors in place of the serious 

 competition of real life, to a kind of 

 panmixia, where all are chosen who are 

 called and there is but little selection 

 of the best. Probably most people who 

 take thought look forward to socialism 

 as a necessary outcome of the increased 

 complexity of social conditions, but 

 there will be division of opinion as to 

 whether steps in this direction such 

 as Mr. Carnegie's foundation should be 

 welcomed or regretted. 



THE CONFERENCE OF ANATOM- 

 ISTS AT THE WI8TAR 

 INSTITUTE. 



The conference of anatomists held 

 on April 11 and 12 at the Wistar In- 

 stitute of Anatomy, Philadelphia, por- 

 tends an important step in the advance- 

 ment of the science of anatomy in 

 America. The men called to this con- 

 ference differ widely in their interests, 

 in their methods of work and interpre- 

 tation, yet all are interested in the one 

 great problem of anatomy in its broad 

 sense. They were selected for this 

 reason, as representing the various 

 phases of activity in morphology. They 

 were invited by the Wistar Institute of 

 Anatomy at the suggestion of its di- 

 rector, Dr. M. J. Greenman, to meet in 

 Philadelphia and discuss the relations 

 which the institute might, with mutual 

 advantage, bear to other forces in the 

 promotion of anatomical research. 



The following anatomists took part 

 in the conference: 



Dr. Lewellys F. Barker, professor of anatomy, 

 University of Chicago, Chicago, Ills. 



Dr. Edwin G. Conklin, professor of zoology, 

 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Dr. Henry H. Donaldson, professor of neu- 

 rology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ills. 



Mr. Simon H. Gage, professor of embryology, 

 Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Dr. G. Carl Huber, professor of embryology 

 and histology, University of Michigan, Ann 

 Arbor, Mich. 



Dr. George S. Huntington, professor of anat- 

 omy, Columbia University, New York City. 



Dr. Franklin P. Mall, professor of anatomy, 

 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 



Dr. J. Playfair McMurrich, professor of anat- 

 omy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 

 Mich. 



Dr. Charles S. Minot, professor of embryol- 

 ogy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass. 



Dr. George S. Piersol, professor of anatomy, 

 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. 



The belief of the institute authorities 

 that there is much of common value to 

 be gained by a cooperation of the in- 

 stitute with the anatomical forces of 

 America is shared by many others, and 

 it is the common opinion that the 

 Wistar Institute, on account of its in- 

 dependent organization, will be of 

 great value in supplementing the work 



