POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



ecutive officers. Ihe small salaries of- 

 fered at Washington also lead to the 

 continual loss of those whose services 

 are of the greatest value to the Govern- 

 ment. Thus, the recent call to the pres- 

 idency of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology of Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, 

 Superintendent of the United States 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, is a serious 

 blow to the bureau and to science at 

 Washington. Dr. Pritchett's scientific 

 attainments and executive ability will 

 find ample scope at the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, where he 

 worthily succeeds Presidents Rogers, 

 Runkle, Walker and Crafts. But he was 

 also greatly needed in the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, where, after the ex- 

 cellent administration of Dr. T. C. Men- 

 denhall, there had been an unfortunate 

 interregnum of three years. During the 

 past three years, however, the work of 

 the Survey has been placed on an ex- 

 cellent basis by Dr. Pritchett, and there 

 is every reason to believe that the 

 ground gained will not be lost. 



The transition of Dr. Pritchett from 

 the professorship of mathematics and as- 

 tronomy in Washington University to 

 the superintendency of the United 

 States Coast and Geodetic Survey and 

 now to the presidency of the Massachu- 

 setts Institute., calls attention to the 

 fact that the only promotion possible to 

 men of science or university professors 

 is an executive position. The type of 

 the German Gelehrte, still current in lit- 

 erature and on the stage, is not common 

 in America. The modern methods of 

 advancing science — the laboratory, the 

 observatory, the museum, the expedi- 

 tion, with their complex equipment — 

 demand administrative ability of a high 

 order. Science has been able to supply 

 presidents, not only to the great tech- 

 nical schools, but also to Harvard, Johns 

 Hopkins, Stanford and other universi- 

 ties. Still, it is unfortunate that the 

 man of science can not look forward to 

 promotion in the direction of his own 

 work. He becomes a college professor 

 or the like at a comparatively early age 



with a moderate salary. He has now as 

 a motive the increase of his reputation, 

 rather likely to degenerate into vanity, 

 and the nobler motive of contributing to 

 the advance of science and of civiliza- 

 tion. But these motives appeal differ- 

 ently to different men — in any case, 

 they bake no bread and educate no 

 children. The average salary of scien- 

 tific men can not be greatly increased; 

 there must be a certain relation between 

 supply and demand, and the average 

 earnings of other professional men are 

 also small. But the lawyer may look 

 forward to becoming a judge, the phy- 

 sician to a large city practice, the 

 clergyman to a bishopric, etc. In Ger- 

 many a university professor may look 

 forward to being called to Berlin, to be- 

 coming a Hofrat, a Geheimrat and a 

 'von.' It seems that we need in each 

 American university one or two chairs 

 with very large endowments, the occu- 

 pation of which would be a special 

 honor. 



The French Academy of Sciences 

 and French Science have lost two of 

 their most distinguished representatives 

 in the deaths of Joseph Bertrand and 

 of Alphonse Milne-Edwards. Bertrand 

 was born in 1823, and was somewhat of 

 a prodigy when a boy, having published 

 a paper on the theory of electricity 

 when but sixteen years old, and being 

 the author of numerous mathematical 

 papers before he was twenty-one. His 

 original contributions to mathematics 

 and mathematical physics are of great 

 importance, and he was the author of 

 standard works on algebra, on arithme- 

 tic and on the calculus. As permanent 

 secretary of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences he was continually engaged in 

 administrative work, preparing obituary 

 notices, acting as judge in the annual 

 awards of its prizes, etc. He also con- 

 tributed a large number of biographies 

 and other articles to non-technical jour- 

 nals. Milne-Edwards, born in 1835, was 

 a son of the eminent zoologist, Henri 

 Milne-Edwards, and the grandson of 

 Bryan Edwards, the historian and mem- 



