September 3. 1903J 



NA rURli 



425 



the temperature of the comet is of the same order as the 

 laboratory temperature, and high enough to produce in- 

 candescence, yet it is not sufficiently high to dissociate the 

 compounds and thus produce the hydrogen and nitrogen 

 spectra as obtained in the laboratory. 



In the concluding portion of his communication M. 

 Deslandres describes some experiments, similar to those by 

 which he has obtained such excellent results in determining 

 planetary rotations, whereby the differential movements of 

 a comet's various parts may be determined from the in- 

 ' lination of its spectral lines to the lines of two comparison 

 pectra photographed alongside the spectrum of the comet. 



The Spectrum of Nova Geminorum. — A telegram from 

 Prof. Pickering, published in No. 3895 of the AsUonomische 

 Nachrichteti, announces that the spectrum of Nova 

 Geminorum was observed by Dr. H. D. Curtis at the Lick 

 Observatory on August 17, and was seen to be of the 

 nebular type which is characteristic of the spectra of de- 

 'lining temporary stars. 



United States Naval Observatory. — Vol. iii. (second 

 -< ries) of the United States Naval Observatory Publications 

 has been received, and contains some 550 pages of useful 

 observational details and results. 



Part i. is devoted to observations of Eros made with the 

 twenty-six inch equatorial and the Clark micrometer 

 " No. ii," during 1900-1901, by Messrs. T. J. J. See and 

 G. K. Lawton. After a description of the instrument, 

 which has recently been supplied with an entirely new 

 mounting by Messrs. Warner and Swasey, Dr. See proceeds 

 to give details of the instrumental constants and their 

 determination, and then gives the results of the individual 

 observations for each night. 



Assistant-astronomer King has used the nine-inch transit 

 circle for observations of Eros and the reference stars 

 suggested by the Conference Astrographique Internationale 

 of July, 1900, and, in part ii. of the report, gives the in- 

 dividual results of his observations. 



Part iii. is a detailed description of the observations of 

 495 zodiacal stars made with the nine-inch transit circle 

 by Prof. Eichelberger in accordance with Sir David Gill's 

 catalogue of 2798 zodiacal stars which it was intended to 

 observe, but in November, 1900, it was found that the 

 pivots of the instrument were badly worn, and therefore 

 the work is suspended until the necessary repairs have been 

 effected. 



In part iv. Mr. Updegraff gives a description, a photo- 

 graph, and a diagrammatic sketch of the six-inch steel 

 transit circle, and in a lengthy introduction gives minute 

 details of the determination and reduction of the instru- 

 mental constants, followed by the separate observations of 

 130 comparison stars for the planets, including a large 

 number of observations of reference stars for Eros. This 

 section is concluded by two catalogues of stars and their 

 positions, the first containing 139 zodiacal stars, and the 

 second the Eros reference stars. 



Part v. concludes this publication, and contains the in- 

 dividual observations made with the prime-vertical transit 

 instrument from 1882 to 1884 bv Lieutenants Ingersoll and 

 Bowman and Ensign Taylor, all of the U.S.A. Navy. 



The White Spots on Saturn. — In the Astronomische 

 Xiichrichten, No. 3894, SenOr J. Comas Sold, of Barcelona, 

 publishes his observations of Barnard's white spot and the 

 smaller white spots which have been recently observed on 

 Saturn. 



Using a six-inch equatorial, he easilv observed Barnard's 

 spot and several smaller ones. On 'June 26 the former 

 crossed the central meridian at i3h. 19m. (G.M.T.), and 

 was seen to be double, whilst in contact with it, and on the 

 lefti^ide (reversed image) a small spot was observed. On 

 July id. i3h. 55m. ± a feebler spot, which also appeared 

 double, was observed to cross the central meridian in the 

 same zone as the larger one. By July 20, when it crossed 

 the meridian at iih. 32m., the large spot was seen to be 

 much feebler and apparently elongated, and on July 28 

 (time of transit =iih. 15m.) it was yet feebler, and a rather 

 difficult object for the six-inch. 



Several other spots were observed, and their times of 

 transit recorded, by Senor Sold, and, as a first approxim- 

 ation, he finds the rotation period of the planet to be 

 loh. 38-4m. 



NO. 1766, VOL. 681 



THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY IN UNI- 

 VERSITIES OF THE UNITED STATES.' 



A TRUE estimate of the position of psychology in the 

 ■"• curriculum of American universities can hardly be 

 formed without a brief survey of the general system of 

 education which prevails there. In earlier years, one need 

 hardly say, the training was far narrower and less liberal 

 than it is now. The candidate for the B.A. degree had his 

 educational career as carefully prescribed for him as if he 

 were still at school, and he had little or no opportunity 

 to deviate from it. At the present day, the various uni- 

 versities of the United States offer every gradation between 

 relatively elective and relatively non-elective systems of 

 study. In most universities the undergraduate will find 

 his course of work strictly defined during at least his first 

 or freshman year. Little by little, however, the elective 

 is gradually replacing the non-elective system. Quite 

 recently. Harvard, for example, determined to allow a very 

 considerable measure of optional subjects, from which the 

 student has to make his choice from the moment he is 

 admitted to the university. 



The danger of such a system is increased by the absence 

 of any special ad hoc examination for the B.A. degree. 

 As a rule, this degree is conferred solely on the results of 

 the terminal examinations held biannually, so that, unless 

 proper precautions were taken, it would be possible for a 

 student, after having passed his three or four years at 

 college, to graduate on the basis of a superficial and very 

 elementary knowledge of many subjects, and a detailed 

 knowledge of none. This drawback American universities 

 have largely succeeded in overcoming by a series of appro- 

 priate regulations concerning the relative number of 

 elementary and advanced lectures at which attendance is 

 required, and concerning the conditions of admission to 

 advanced lectures. At Yale, for example, undergraduate 

 studies are ranged under three heads :- — (i) Languages and 

 literature ; (2) mathematics, physical and natural science ; 

 (3) philosophy, history and the social sciences. Every 

 student is required to have attended advanced courses in 

 at least one of these departments, and to show at least an 

 elementary knowledge of subjects in the two other depart- 

 ments. 



It will now be evident why subjects which in English 

 universities are studied by the few are in America taken 

 up by the many. Take Yale, for instance, with her de- 

 partment of philosophy, history and the social sciences. 

 Every undergraduate has to show at least an elementary 

 knowledge of some subject in this department, i.e. of philo^ 

 sophy, psychology, ethics, pedagogics, logic, ancient, 

 mediiEval and modern history, economics, politics or 

 sociology. Large numbers of American students take a 

 course of economics. At one university I was told that, on 

 an average, every student takes two courses of economics 

 during his undergraduate career. This fact may be ranged 

 beside another, viz. that there are twenty-four professors, 

 lecturers and instructors of political economy at Harvard. 



So also it comes about that a great number of 

 students take up psychology, either by itself or with allied 

 subjects. 250 students, chit fly in their second or sophomore 

 year, attend the year's course at Harvard, which is equally 

 divided between the study of logic and the study of 

 elementary psychology. At Yale a similar year's course 

 on ethics and psychology was attended this year by 225 

 students. At Cornell the year's course on psychology, 

 logic and ethics is attended by 200 students. Princeton 

 goes so far as to make psychology a compulsory subject, 

 without which the B.A. degree cannot be obtained. The 

 popularity of psychology is also shown in that it is taught 

 in the upper forms of some of the better schools. 



Experimental work in the laboratory is only performed 

 by students who intend to proceed further in psychology. 

 Their number is a very small fraction^ — from one-tenth to 

 one-fifteenth — of those who attend the preliminary course. 

 At Columbia they are expected to have attended either a 

 general course on experimental psychology or a special 

 course, in which no less than eight lecturers take part, each 

 being responsible for a few lectures in his own department 

 of psychology, be it physiological, genetic, comparative, 



1 Paper re.id before ihe Tsych lo;ical S.-c'^'y .it Cambridge, July 25, 

 by Dr. C. S. Myers 



