28 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



To one who examines carefully the entire field both in 

 teaching and in research, the most serious element in the 

 situation seems to be the failure of the stream of recruits 

 to the profession at its sources. Those undergraduates 

 who were in position to be attracted by the opportunities 

 of graduate work in zoology have had their attention 

 diverted to other lines by influences so powerful that in 

 the majority of cases they will not turn back. Those grad- 

 uate students who were in preparation for the duties of 

 teaching and research have largely been called upon to 

 take up work in other lines and many of them have become 

 so thoroughly intrenched in other fields that they will 

 hesitate to assume the loss incident to the transfer to 

 another line of activity, even if that be the field in which 

 they were interested of old. With the coming of the war 

 the undergraduate body was greatly reduced in numbers, 

 but the enrollment of the graduate schools was affected far 

 more seriously. In zoology at least the enrollment in 

 various institutions fell off from 20 to 90 per cent and 

 those who were left were by no means sufficient to meet 

 even the limited demand for the services of graduate 

 students in this field during war times. The numbers now 

 available will be entirely inadequate to supply the needs 

 for the instructional staff that is sure to be demanded in 

 the period immediately after the war. 



Furthermore, the stipends of such positions have always 

 been low, and in comparison w^ith the greatly reduced 

 purchasing power of money, which does not seem likely to 

 be increased in the near future, these positions will not 

 only be much less attractive but are likely to prove im- 

 possible for such as previously sought to secure them. 

 While ten years ago or less the stipends furnished were 

 adequate to provide, though scantily, for the actual ex- 

 penses of the graduate student, now they must be supple- 

 mented very considerably to meet even the most modest re- 

 quirements of such workers. In the face of opportunities 

 on every hand to secure occupations in other lines with 

 generous stipends, the practical disadvantage will deter 

 many from going back to graduate study. They will give 

 up, accordingly, their plans for an academic career and 

 leave the sources of professional assistants seriously de- 

 pleted. When it is considered that under the requirements 

 for the Ph.D. degree, which in the majority of good institu- 

 tions has been a condition for entrance to the faculty in 



