October 16, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



509 



studies which can never by any possibility 

 be popular, or appeal even to any large 

 number of students, but which have demon- 

 strated their power to enlighten and to 

 ennoble those who pursue them, shall not 

 be given up in obedience to popular clamor, 

 merely to make way for other things that 

 seem to be of more immediate utility." 

 Consequently, we must put in the curricu- 

 lum of our graduate schools those subjects 

 whose study best disciplines the mind and 

 character, makes strong men, establishes 

 high ideals; subjects the most abstract and 

 far removed from the material needs of 

 mankind, even though popular clamor in 

 its mistaken zeal is against them. 



The state of Illinois has taken a note- 

 worthy step in the history of democratic 

 government in appropriating money spe- 

 eifieally for the support of a graduate 

 school of the arts and sciences. It is evi- 

 dence that the democratic people of Illinois 

 believe that scholarship is necessary to 

 progress, prosperity and the continuance of 

 democratic ideals. Their act is evidence 

 of the existence of at least a subconscious 

 belief that only thus can the democratic 

 institutions that have become endeared to 

 us be made permanent. The public of this 

 state has learned more rapidly, and in a 

 way that the people of scarcely any other 

 state has learned, the value of research in 

 the arts and sciences, from the splendid 

 success and service of applied science, par- 

 ticularly in agriculture and engineering. 

 They are carrying the lesson over and 

 showing that they believe that the satis- 

 faction of the intellectual and moral needs 

 of the masses is as important a matter for 

 public support as their material prosperity, 

 or economic progress. It is therefore a 

 high trust that is committed to us. We are 

 called on here to lay plans which will bear 

 fruit in the enrichment of the spiritual and 

 intellectual nature and life of the people 

 of our state and country. We are called 



on to add to the sum of the world's knowl- 

 edge in the name of and through the sup- 

 port of a democratic people, to the end that 

 the world shall be a better world, that de- 

 mocracy in particular shall be able to fol- 

 low truer ideals and reach a higher life 

 than it can without such scholarship. We 

 are called on to make the State University 

 the center of knowledge and information 

 for all matters relating to public life and 

 private welfare, in the interest of the citi- 

 zens, and to furnish them the means for 

 their intellectual, ethical and spiritual 

 growth. 



David Kjnlet 

 Univeesity of Illinois 



PROFESSOR WHITMAN AND THE MARINE 

 BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY 



Professor Whitman's services to biology as 

 director of the Marine Biological Laboratory 

 have been so notable and his retirement from 

 that post is a matter of so much general in- 

 terest that consent has been obtained to pub- 

 lish the following abstract from the minutes 

 of the trustees of the laboratory: 



Univebsity of Chicago 



August 8, 1908. 

 To THE Trustees or the Marine Biological 

 Laboratory, Woods Holl, Mass. 

 Gentlemen: This year has brought the twenty- 

 first birthday of the Marine Biological Labora- 

 tory. For these many years you have continued 

 to honor me with the directorship of the labora- 

 tory. In late years I have so far drifted out of 

 office and out of use that a formal resignation at 

 this time can be scarcely more than an announce- 

 ment of the fact accomplished. The time has ar- 

 rived, however, when a reorganization seems to be 

 imperatively demanded, and as a prelude thereto, 

 I must ask you to accept this note as a somewhat 

 belated announcement of my resignation of the 

 office of director. 



Let me take this opportunity to thank you one 

 and all very heartily for the cordial support you 

 have extended to me. 



Respectfully, 



C. O. Whitman 



