SCIENCE 



FRroAY, August 20, 1909 



CONTENTS 

 Doctorates conferred hy American Universities 225 



Diirer's " Contribution " to Oesner's Natural 

 History: Peofessob Francis H. Heebick. . 232 



The United States Bureau of Education: De. 

 Elmee Ellswobth Brown 235 



Ccientific Notes and News 236 



University and Educational News 240 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Telegony as Induced Reversion: 0. F. Cook 241 



Scientific Bools: — 



Snodgrass on the Thorax of Insects: Peo- 

 fessob C. W. WooDWORTH. Gill's Hand- 

 book of Oil Analysis: A. H. Sabin 243 



Soientific Journals and Articles 245 



Special Articles: — 



On • the Connection between Stimulation 

 and Changes in the Permeability of the 

 Plasma Membranes of the Irritable Ele- 

 ments: Dr. Ralph S. Liixie 245 



The Fortieth General Meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Chemical Society: B. E. Cubby 249 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 /eyiew should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Tudson, N. Y. 



DOCTORATES CONFERRED BY AMERICAN 

 UNIVERSITIES 



Foe the twelfth year statistics have been 

 collected concerning the degrees of doctor 

 of philosophy or of science conferred by 

 the iiniversities of the United States and 

 the data are summarized in the accompany- 

 ing tables. There were this year conferred 

 378 degrees, exactly the same numher as 

 last year, but an increase of more than 100 

 over the average of the ten preceding years. 

 Details for these ten years will be found in 

 the issue of Science for August 30, 1907. 

 The number twelve years ago was scarcely 

 over 200 and now has nearly doubled. 

 Columbia this year conferred 59 degrees, 

 which is the largest number so far from a 

 single institution, and places Columbia be- 

 fore Harvard in the total number of de- 

 grees conferred in twelve years, 436 as 

 compared with 418. Chicago with 448 

 stands first. Tale with 394 stands close to 

 Harvard. The Johns Hopkins, which 

 earlier was at the head of the list, has not 

 maintained its position and is now in the 

 group with Pennsylvania and Cornell. 

 These seven institutions are decidedly be- 

 fore all others in their graduate schools, 

 having conferred 2,579 degrees as com- 

 pared with 892 by the thirty-five other uni- 

 versities. Among the state universities 

 Wisconsin leads with 110 degrees followed 

 by Michigan with 86 and California with 

 47. 



The second table gives similar details for 

 the natural and exact sciences. Exactly 

 half of the degrees were this year in the 

 sciences whereas in the first ten years cov- 

 ered by these statistics the percentage was 

 45. Chicago here also stands at the head 



