SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1436 



will always be open problems enough in tlie 

 educational field — the many opportunities for 

 advanced study and research and the careers 

 now open to women and the large achievements 

 of to-day as contrasted with the relatively 

 meager results of those earlier years. In this 

 forward movement Bryn Mawr under the lead- 

 ership of President Thomas has held a position 

 in the front rank. 



Certain fundamental questions, once hotly 

 contested, have been so completely and def- 

 initely settled that it is a waste of time longer 

 to discuss them. My profession has at last 

 given its reluctant consent to the proposition 

 that the health of girls is generally benefited 

 rather than impaired by the conditions of col- 

 lege life. The demonstration of the capacity 

 of young women to meet all the mental tests 

 of college work at least as successfully as men 

 students is complete and convincing. College 

 breeding, instead of sacrificing, enhances wom- 

 anly charm, attractiveness and fitness for do- 

 mestic happiness. Girls go to college for the 

 same varied reasons, aims, motives and ambi- 

 tions as their brothers, and seem destined to 

 seek it in equal numbers. 



It signifies much to have these and certain 

 kindred questions settled by time and experi- 

 ence — ^the only way in which they could be set- 

 tled — and their controversial discussion rele- 

 gated to the popular pastime of summoning 

 ghosts of the departed. 



The debatable questions are really no longer 

 strictly within the educational field. Women 

 now can study what they like and practically 

 where they like. The unsettled questions, such 

 as the academic, scientific and professional op- 

 portunities, careers and rewards available to 

 women, especially married women, after the 

 educational period, are of great importance, but 

 they do not fall within the subject of this 

 address. 



President Thomas's admirable and inspiring 

 address on the twenty-fifth anniversary of this 

 coUege, as well as other publications, have made 

 unnecessary the rehearsal on this occasion of 

 all the various influences and policies which 

 have combined to make Bryn Mawr the re- 

 nowned college which it is to-day. Inasmuch, 

 however, as the highest distinction of this college 



is the intellectual life which it has cultivated 

 and engendered and the high standards of 

 scholarship which it has created and main- 

 tained I may be permitted to recall to your 

 attention certain salient points, familiar as they 

 may be to this audience. 



Bryn Mawr entered fully into the heritage 

 of the new ideas and methods introduced in 

 1876 by the Johns Hopkins University into 

 higher education in this country, marking, as 

 they did, a new era of American university edu- 

 cation. I quote President Thomas's own gen- 

 erous words, re-echoed in the introductory re- 

 marks to which you have just listened: "Bryn 

 Mawr's debt to Johns Hopkins is too great to 

 l^e put into words. We owe it not only our 

 group system, but our whole conception of 

 what graduate and undergraduate work should 

 be and our ideals of research and scientific 

 thoroughness." Many times over, I may add, 

 has Bryn Mawr repaid this debt, and most 

 worthily has she guarded to this day these 

 ideals, while adapting and expanding them in 

 detail to meet the special conditions of under- 

 graduate and graduate work of this college in 

 its steady and rapid growth. 



It will, I think, be universally conceded, with 

 the fullest and most grateful recognition of the 

 important pioneer work and the later large 

 achievements of her sister colleges, that the 

 entrance of Bryn Mawr into the educational 

 world marked a new epoch in the higher edu- 

 cation of women. 



The fii-st and most striking evidence of this 

 was the emphasis, previously unexampled in 

 women's colleges, placed by the Bryn Mawr 

 administration in selecting its faculty upon the 

 scholarly attainments and productive scholar- 

 ship of its teaching staff, and this remains a 

 chief distinction of this college. The excellence 

 of its staff of teachers is the best test of college 

 management and is the foundation of the repu- 

 tation best worth having of any college or uni- 

 versity. 



To match the acumen and skill, the flair, one 

 may say, displayed by President Thomas in 

 searching out and securing teachers and inves- 

 tigators whose high promise in the glory of 

 their youth was later realized, one must pass 

 from the academic field to the manifestation of 



