OCTOBEB 1, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



443 



sities; but she can, by attempting to do so, 

 lose her distinctive position and become il- 

 liberal and stupid. Let Harvard abandon the 

 ambition to be the biggest college — or the 

 second or sixth biggest college — and be con- 

 tent to remain the biggest influence in the 

 college life of America. On the day after 

 she had turned her face in this direction, 

 there would be an improvement in spirit in 

 every university in the country. The sense- 

 less rivalry to secure students would be, in 

 some degree, relaxed and a new standard of 

 ambition would be introduced. The large 

 sums of money which Harvard is now raising 

 and wasting to her own undoing, could be 

 turned to other uses; and the energy of those 

 men who toil so ceaselessly at Harvard's 

 propaganda could be discharged where it be- 

 longs — into the business world. 



I do not see any signs of such a change of 

 front on Harvard's part, and I utter this only 

 as a hope, and in an Emersonian spirit. But 

 I will give one piece of practical advice upon 

 the subject, so practical, in fact, that it 

 sounds almost like the advice of a business 

 man. 



If you wish to have a university, you must 

 have scholars and scientific men on the gov- 

 erning boards. With the exception of Presi- 

 dent Lowell there is not a scholar among " The 

 President and Fellows of Harvard College." 

 They are all business men, lawyers or doc- 

 tors. Now doctors are, for hospital purposes, 

 scientists and scholars; and I will wager that 

 the Massachusetts hospitals will bear com- 

 parison with any hospitals in the world from 

 every point of view. But if you should ex- 

 clude the doctors from the boards of hospital 

 management, as you have excluded learned 

 men from the management of Harvard Uni- 

 versity; and if you should hand over the 

 Massachusetts hospitals to the management 

 of business men, as Harvard University has 

 been handed over to the management of busi- 

 ness men, your hospitals would soon sink 

 below the standards of Europe. Now, learn- 

 ing is not safe if left exclusively in the 

 hands of business men, just as philanthropy 

 would not be safe if left exclusively in their 



hands. Learning can be protected and trans- 

 mitted only through the enthusiasm of those 

 men to whom learning is a religion; that is 

 to say, through scholars and the high priests 

 of science. John Jay Chapman 



HISTORICAL GRAPHICS 



To THE Editor op Science : Referring to the 

 short article on " Historical Graphics," by 

 Dr. Barus (page 272), I might say that two 

 years ago during the summer vacation I 

 worked out a similar historical chart for bot- 

 any, and used almost exactly the same methods 

 that Dr. Barus has. I went back to several 

 centuries before the Christian era and brought 

 my chart down to 1900 as he did. The chart 

 was made on a long strip of common opaque 

 " curtaining " and I drew lines as he did for 

 the dates. On account of covering so many 

 centuries I sdlowed but ten inches for each 

 century and did not put in, as he has done, 

 the haK centuries. My chart extended some- 

 thing like twenty feet and I followed exactly 

 the plan suggested by Dr. Barus of indicating 

 the life of each man by a horizontal line. In 

 my chart, however, I drew these life symbols 

 as rectangles about two inches high and 

 stretching right and left the proper length. 

 Inside of this rectangle the name of the bot- 

 anist was printed in capital letters. This has 

 the advantage of avoiding any possibility of 

 mistaking the line belonging to any particular 

 name. After I had worked out my plan on a 

 smaller sheet of paper it was enlarged into the 

 chart of which I speak, and has been hanging 

 for two years across the end of my lecture 

 room. I keep it permanently in place, as in 

 this way students become gradually acquainted 

 with the general distribution of names. I am 

 sure that Dr. Barus's plan is an admirable one, 

 and it certainly has served a very good purpose 

 in my lecture room. Charles E. Bessey 



statistics of telegony 

 To THE Editor op Science: The letter of 

 Mr. 0. F. Cook in your issue of August 20 is 

 so characteristic of the attitude of certain 

 biologists to biometry that perhaps you will 

 spare me space for a brief commentary on it. 

 Mr. Cook writes: 



