July 16, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



87 



est salaries paid are, I believe, $900 to one 

 man, and $1,000 to several others. 



How then could such an average as $835 be 

 obtained at all? The explanation is simple. 

 Northwestern Univereity Medical School, by 

 reason of its situation in the city of Chicago 

 and in a section of the city where clinical ma- 

 terial is very abundant, has a very large 

 attendance, and the number of clinical pro- 

 fessors, instructors, etc., is correspondingly 

 large. According to what is almost the un- 

 broken custom in this country, clinical in- 

 structors serve without pay, but since their 

 income is not derived from the university at 

 all, to count them in in computing an average 

 salary is certainly a grave error. 



I could show, I think, without much diffi- 

 culty, that the statistics given for Harvard 

 and several other of the institutions mentioned 

 in the article in question are also entirely 

 misleading without such explanations as Mr. 

 Marx has seen proper to give in the case of 

 the institution with which he happens to be 

 connected. 



In closing may I also protest against the 

 slurring remark made about Temple College 

 on page 784? I have never been connected in 

 any shape, form or manner with this institv- 

 tion, nor have I had any friend who has been 

 in attendance there. Still, I feel that it is no 

 more than fair to inform Mr. Mars that this 

 institution, situated in Philadelphia, is doing 

 a very worthy work and certainly ought not 

 to be referred to in the manner in which it 

 was in the article in question. 



Walter Lichtenstein 



Northwestern University Library . 



To THE Editor of Science : I have read Mr. 

 Lichtenstein's letter with much interest and 

 am grateful for the opportunity you so kindly 

 offer me to comment on it. While my first 

 feeling is that your correspondent's letter 

 answers itself, the casual reader might draw 

 the inference from silence on my part that 

 the criticisms offered are sound and unan- 

 swerable. 



The letter says : " Mr. Marx's article is not 

 devoid of many of the faults to which I have 



alluded." Let us see what these enumerated 

 faults are : 



1. " This article and others of a like nature, 

 which have been appearing recently, show the 

 need for more accurate and reliable statistics 

 relating to higher education." True. The 

 writer would call attention to statements to 

 this effect on page 783, column two, para- 

 graph two ; the last paragraph of page 784 ; 

 and the latter part of column one and top of 

 column two, page 787, of the original article. 



If, however, the inference is meant to be 

 drawn that the writer's data are inaccurate, 

 he must beg for more specific criticism as he 

 is prepared to demonstrate the indubitable 

 authenticity of his data. To give the entire 

 tabular data on which the charts are based 

 and the authority for each item would re- 

 quire nearly as much space, however, as the 

 original paper occupied. The sources include 

 long series of annual catalogues, reports of 

 presidents and treasurers, as well as personal 

 communications from administrative officers. 

 The same mail which brought the letter of 

 your correspondent this morning, also brought 

 one from the president of one of the large 

 universities, who has known of this investiga- 

 tion for a year and a half and to whom the 

 writer is indebted for valuable data, contain- 

 ing these words : 



Unfortunately a great majority of the articles 

 on education are full of generalities based upon 

 no special investigation, which really give no help 

 to any one. In contrast with this you have car- 

 ried on a very important comparative investiga- 

 tion in reference to facts as to actual tendencies. 



Quotations in the same vein might be made 

 from half a hundred letters received from 

 similar authoritative sources. The men best 

 acquainted with the facts best recognize the 

 authenticity of the data compiled by the 

 writer. 



2. " In the great majority of the cases the 

 writers have all too often been intimately ac- 

 quainted with only one institution." 



Is this one of the faults laid at Mr. Marx's 

 door ? If so, on what knowledge of facts is it 

 based? The writer had the honor of con- 

 tributing to the discussion of " The Condi- 



