AMERICAN COLLEGES vs. AMERICAN SCIENCE. 471 



stand, it is a nuisance for which no valid excuse can be found. Here 

 there seems to be a real conflict, not between religion and science, but 

 between the injudiciousness of religious people and the requirements 

 of scientific research. Where one good laboratory should exist, we 

 have forty small and inferior sets of apparatus, each fit only for ele- 

 mentary instruction, and wholly unsuited to purposes of investigation. 

 Thus the very institutions which we should naturally expect to ad- 

 vance science have been made by sectarian spirit incapable of yield- 

 ing solid results. Other branches of learning suffer also, only science 

 is most impeded of all. The classics, mathematics, philosophy, or 

 literature, demand few appliances. Give the professors a fair library, 

 perhaps some maps or charts, and a recitation or lecture room apiece, 

 and all is provided for. But science, %o be properly taught, demands 

 much more. There must be not only laboratories and apparatus, but 

 material and specimens ; and these all cost much money. No wonder, 

 then, that a poor institution cramps its scientific teachers, and offers 

 meagre opportunities for the prosecution of their best and most valu- 

 able work. 



Going a step beyond this curtailment of material means, we shall 

 find that the division of forces again operates contrary to science in 

 the selection of professors. In the first place, poverty compels a col- 

 lege to demand more work from a professor than any man can well 

 do. A teacher who is called upon to instruct elementary students 

 in half a dozen distinct branches cannot accomplish much real work 

 in any one. Every branch of science is vigorously growing, and can 

 be properly taught only by one who has the time to keep abreast of 

 its growth. A large majority of American college professors are now 

 incompetent, because the policy of college management keeps them 

 so. Let us glance at a few of the professorships which some country 

 colleges have established. Here, for example, is McCorkle College, 

 situated in Eastern Ohio, whose ministerial president is " Professor of 

 Hebrew, Natural, Mental, and Moral Science." Surely this gentle- 

 man, if his professions are honest, must be the most learned scholar 

 in the world. His "moral science" would, of course, prevent him 

 from undertaking any work which he was incompetent to do. We 

 cannot suspect a "reverend" of hypocrisy in such a matter as this. 

 In Maryland, New Windsor College contrives to neutralize scientific 

 heterodoxy with a " Professor of Abstruse Science and Religious In- 

 structor." Such a teacher can easily take time by the forelock, and 

 inoculate the minds of his young charges with a proper disrespect for 

 the awful notions of Darwin, Tyndall, Huxley, Draper, and company. 

 Another Maryland college, St. John's, rejoices in a "Professor of Nat- 

 ural Philosophy, Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology, and Lecturer 

 on Zoology and Botany." Penn College, in Iowa, has a " Professor 

 of Natural Science and Political Economy ; " and Eminence College, 

 Kentucky, a "Professor of Biblical Literature, Mental Philosophy, 



