SCIENCE 



Friday, October 1, 1909 



CONTEXTS 

 The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 

 American Standards in Education and the 

 World-standard: Dk. Elmer Ellsworth 

 Bbown 417 



The Geographical Distribution of the Student 

 Body at a JVuinber of Universities and Col- 

 leges : Professor Rudolf Tombo, Jb 435 



The Unification of the Methods of Analysis of 

 Fats and Oils 435 



Scientific Notes and News 436 



University and Educational News 439 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



The Harvard Classics and Harvard: John 

 Jay Chapman. Historical Graphics: Pro- 

 fessor Charles E. Besset. Statistics of 

 Telegony: Professor Karl Peabson 440 



Scientific Boolcs: — 



Bailey's Cyclopedia of American Agricul- 

 ture: Professor W. M. Hays. Stahl's 

 Zur Biologic des Chlorophylls: Professor 

 George J. Peiece. Knopf's Tuberculosis: 

 Dr. Geo. M. Kobeb 444 



Scientific Journals and Articles 450 



Special Articles: — 



The Perfect Stage of Leaf-spot of Pear and 

 Quince: Professor George F. Atkinson. 

 Notes on Two Common Turtles of Eastern 

 United States: H. A. Allard. On Artifi- 

 cial Parthenogenesis of the Sea-urchin Egg: 

 Dr. J. F. McClendon 452 



Societies and Academies: — 



The American Mathematical Society: Pro- 

 fessor F. N. Cole ' 455 



MSS. int^ndeil fur publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review stiould be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 



AMERICAN STANDARDS IN EDUCATION 

 AND THE WORLD-STANDARD' 



For the most part, higher education in 

 America has been carried on by institu- 

 tions singularly isolated one from another. 

 Each has been a law unto itself. The state 

 has conferred upon them academic powers, 

 but has not defined their academic respon- 

 sibilities. In a little less degree, the same 

 separatism has prevailed in our secondary 

 education, and again in less degree in our 

 elementary schools. 



We were individualists in our education, 

 with institutions as our units, before we 

 became out-and-out individualists, with 

 single students as our units. It is hard to 

 see how this individualism could now be 

 carried further, unless it might be by ex- 

 tending the elective system down through 

 the grades and into the primary school. 

 The most radical advocates of free election, 

 however, balk at the offer to six-year-olds 

 of a choice between learning to read and 

 learning to make mud pies. Here at least 

 the doctrine of equivalence breaks down, 

 and indeed it seems doubtful whether the 

 elective system will spread very far beyond 

 its present boundaries. Its great vogue in 

 our best universities, its long ascendency, 

 the personal weight of its ablest advocates 

 — even these considerations can not dis- 

 guise the fact that, in the long sweep of 

 educational history, it is a mode, a fashion, 

 a phase, and not the ultimate solution of a 

 problem of the ages. In more trivial and 



"Address of the Vice-president and Chairman 

 of Section L. Baltimore, 1908. 



