TRANSACTIONS. 
I. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES. 
SCIENCE IN EDUCATION. 
BY PREST. S. W. WILLISTON, LAWRENCE. 
A presidential address delivered before the thirtieth annual meeting of the Academy, at 
aldwin, October 23, 1897. 
During the year 1895-’96 there were in attendance at the colleges and universi- 
ties of the United States nearly 50,000 students who were pursuing courses lead- 
ing to the degree of bachelor of arts, and of whom nearly 10,000 received that 
degree. In the various technological and professional schools there were 66,000 
students and nearly or quite 15,000 graduates. That is, those students seeking 
the so-called liberal education were less than forty per cent. of all the candidates 
for college degrees. 
In none of the professional schools, with but few exceptions, is the possession 
of a college or unjversity degree necessary for admission. A single medical school 
at the present time requires its matriculates to possess the bachelor degree, and 
some others will in the near future. In the theological schools a preparatory col- 
lege education is more usual, but the whole number of theological students in the 
United States is relatively small, and does not seem to be rapidly increasing. 
Nearly one-half of the professional students are those studying medicine, and 
of these I do not think more than five per cent. are graduates of other courses. 
Less than that percentage will be found among the engineering students, for 
reasons that will appear later. The profession of law, which is yet far behind 
the other professions in its educational requirements, has less than 10,000 stu- 
dents in attendance upon college instruction in our country, not one-third of the 
number of the medical students, though the members of the two professions in 
practice are much more nearly equal in numbers. A much larger proportion of 
arts graduates turn to the legal profession than to any other, in part due to the 
fact that the educational requirements of the legal profession are, in general, on 
so low a plane that the earnest young man is not content to enter upon his life’s 
work with so sligbt a college preparation as it demands; in part because the ordi- 
nary college course offers better preparatory training for the legal profession than 
it does for any other, save the theological or pedagogic. 
I am not aware of any statistics of the number of arts graduates among the 
active members of the professions in America, as a whole, but the number is 
clearly very small, certainly not one in ten, and I believe that there can be no 
question but that the percentage is steadily becoming less from year to year. co 
Our first impressions are that this fact is to be deplored. I believe, however, 
that it is rather matter of congratulation, inasmuch as it certainly means in the 
end better preparation for the active duties of life by the great body of profes- 
sional men. 
In no branch of education has there been more active progress than in that of 
medical education in the United States during the past fifteen years, and in none 
has there been a larger proportional increase of students. Twenty years ago, 
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