70 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



and physiology, when he suggested that physicians and not philosophers 

 should be considered to be authorities upon educational subjects. 



Thinking and behavior are phenomena dependent upon the existence 

 of a brain and nervous system. The greatest advance in our educa- 

 tional system will begin when the universities require that those who 

 assume to speak with the voice of authority upon these two important 

 topics, shall have as thorough a knowledge as can now be obtained of the 

 functions of the organ the development of which has alone placed us 

 on a higher plane than that attained by our remote ancestors, the 

 anthropoid apes. If we are sincere and earnest in our solicitations as 

 to the hastening of the millennium where wisdom and culture shall be 

 a common possession, let us see to it that every opportunity and en- 

 couragement is extended by the universities for the study of the meth- 

 ods of developing the delicate mechanism and fine balance of mind 

 expressed in the mental qualities indicative of culture and learning. 

 It is safe to predict that in the near future those universities will be 

 considered the most advanced and those nations the most intelligent 

 where the greatest encouragement is given to the study of the organ on 

 the functional efficiency of which the advance of the human race 

 towards a higher civilization depends. Anatole France has said the 

 periods in which little intelligent interest has been taken in the study 

 of the structure of the human body have corresponded with the ebbs in 

 the advancing tide of civilization. It is no exaggeration to affirm that 

 to-day the measure of our civilization is to be estimated by the effort 

 made to gain a cledrer and more comprehensive knowledge of the brain 

 and its functions, with the purpose of maintaining the thinking-power 

 of the race at its point of maximum efficiency. 



The first duty of a university, we are told, is to engage in active war- 

 fare with ignorance. Over the portals of many an American institution 

 is carved the figure of the eagle as symbolic of the spirit of the attack- 

 ing forces. In too many instances, however, conditions would be better 

 S3mibolized by another bird which closes its eyes to its enemies and 

 buries its head in the sands of the deserts. 



If the brain is the only organ to be used effectively in the fight 

 against the foul fiend of ignorance, it is not creditable to American 

 universities that they have thus far given so little attention to the 

 proper study of the weapons to be used. 



