OCTOBEB 1, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



427 



cational standards can not be permanently 

 successful till they are fully related with 

 the larger movement, the movement toward 

 the determination of world-standards. 



It has been necessary to limit this dis- 

 cussion by taking account only of higher 

 and professional education. The move- 

 ments of the time, however, relate as well 

 to education of secondary and elementary 

 grade, and some of their most interesting 

 results may be looked for on those lower 

 and broader fields. But as professional 

 and higher instruction must in some mea- 

 sure determine the bounds of all instruc- 

 tion, it is natural that, as an international 

 question, we should have first to do with 

 standards in these departments of teaching. 

 The bachelor's degree, the doctorate in 

 philosophy and science, and the certificate 

 of competence to practise medicine, are 

 pivotal points as regards the international 

 question. 



The devising of practical procedure in 

 this matter will call for serious considera- 

 tion. With reference to such procedure, I 

 beg to offer, in closing, the following sug- 

 gestions : 



On its academic side the standards- 

 problem must be wrought out in this coun- 

 try chiefly by concerted action of the insti- 

 tutions concerned. It is of the utmost con- 

 sequence that these institutions should 

 find ways of working together, and avoid 

 the danger of working at cross-purposes. 

 The National Government has to do with 

 the matter directly as an international 

 question. Whatever diplomatic represen- 

 tations may be made in the matter from 

 time to time must, of course, pass through 

 the Department of State, and in these 

 matters that Department acts ordinarily 

 in consultation with the Department of the 

 Interior. The Bureau of Education accord- 

 ingly, for the Department of the Interior, 

 forms the connection between the Govern- 



ment and the academic bodies which are 

 concerned with the formulation of our 

 American standards. It seems desirable 

 that a consultative council for higher and 

 professional education should be attached 

 to the Bureau of Education, with a view to 

 the effective handling of this and related 

 questions, and that competent specialists 

 should be employed on the staff of that 

 office to deal with such questions. Direct 

 conference between the educational bodies 

 and educational leaders of this country and 

 those of foreign countries, touching agree- 

 ment concerning educational requirements 

 and credentials, becomes increasingly 

 desirable. Within the next few years it is 

 to be hoped that such conferences may be 

 frequently held. It should be a part of the 

 program of American education to further 

 the holding of such international confer- 

 ences, and to bear our fair part in the 

 proceedings of such conferences. 



Elmeb Ellsworth Brown. 



THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF 



THE STUDENT BODY AT A NUMBER 



OF UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES 



The accompanying table explains the 

 geographical distribution of the student 

 body of twenty-one American universities, 

 five New England colleges for men, five 

 colleges for women, two technological 

 schools and one Pennsylvania college and 

 engineering school for men, for the aca- 

 demic year 1908-9, the summer session 

 students being in every case omitted. 

 Indiana, Iowa, Johns Hopkins, Kansas, 

 Nebraska, Northwestern and Stanford 

 have been added to the list, and the insti- 

 tutions have been separated into groups as 

 they were last year. 



Comparing the attendance by divisions 

 of the six eastern universities (Columbia, 

 Cornell, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Prince- 

 ton, Tale) with the corresponding figures 

 for the same universities in a similar table 



