OOTOBEB 23, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



561 



approving only such as maintain the highest 

 plane of intellectual integrity and conserva- 

 tism in the deduction of conclusions from the 

 facts. 



President Hopkins is in no need of vindica- 

 tion by a committee of this association. The 

 facts in the case speak for themselves and 

 every chemist and student of soils whose 

 opinion is at all worthy of respect will amply 

 sustain him in the interpretation of these 

 facts. The unanimous action of the com- 

 mittee was inspired, above all else, by the 

 desire to discharge a duty to those who rely 

 on the association as an authority as to 

 strictly scientific methods of research, and the 

 practical application of the results of such 

 work to agriculture. The members of the 

 association are not only affiliated with control 

 and research work, but frequently serve also 

 as teachers in our agricultural schools. They 

 should not, therefore, shirk the moral respon- 

 sibility imposed upon them. A negative atti- 

 tude could not be assumed in the discussion 

 under consideration, nor could it be honestly 

 ignored. 



The report of the committee was adopted 

 by the association. 



APPOINTMENTS IN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 



To THE Editor of Science: The question 

 raised by Professor Wenley in Science, 

 August 21, as regards the desirability that 

 each great department of inquiry should estab- 

 lish a " bureau of information to bring men 

 and places together," appears to me to relate 

 to a need which deserves the ventilation sug- 

 gested by Professor Wenley, with a view to 

 common action. Probably no department 

 feels this need more than that of mathe- 

 matics in view of the fact that so few people 

 are familiar with the real nature of advanced 

 work in mathematics, or, in the more emphatic 

 words of Sir Oliver Lodge, that "the mathe- 

 matical ignorance of the average educated 

 person has always been complete and shame- 

 less." This fact has too frequently led au- 

 thorities to accept men at their own avowed 

 estimate, or at the estimate of some friends 

 who did not take the matter very seriously. 



since they were not held responsible for their 

 advice by the men who really understood the 

 situation. 



While publications like " American Men of 

 Science " render valuable assistance, yet this 

 service is far from complete in view of the 

 facts that the grouping in such a work can- 

 not be sufficiently minute, nor can the issues, 

 with up-to-date changes, be sufficiently fre- 

 quent to afford just the information that is 

 generally needed by those entrusted with the 

 filling of important positions. In consider- 

 ing this question the Carnegie Foundation for 

 the Advancement of Teaching in its Bulletin 

 Number Two, issued May, 1908, calls atten- 

 tion to the method adopted in the choosing 

 of professors in the Italian universities, which 

 has shown excellent results. The main 

 feature of this method is that the professor 

 is finally chosen by a jury of five professors 

 of the same subject or of a kindred subject to 

 that in which the vacancy exists. In the 

 selection of this jury the faculty of each of 

 the twenty-one Italian universities is invited 

 to vote for five men, and the minister of 

 public instruction chooses five names from 

 amongst the ten having the highest votes. 



In sharp contrast to this method stands the 

 inbreeding system followed by most of the 

 larger American institutions, and the still 

 more vicious system adopted by many of the 

 smaller institutions as well as by some of the 

 larger ones, according to which the vacancy is 

 made known to only a few trusted individuals 

 in order to avoid the examination of the 

 credentials of a large number of applicants. 

 One of the principal objections to the system 

 of inbreeding is that it does not emphasize 

 sufficiently high scholarly attainments and 

 tends to encourage superficiality, which fre- 

 quently attracts local attention, but seldom 

 receives national recognition. It is said that 

 chiefs of divisions under the federal govern- 

 ment are frequently surprised at finding, by 

 means of the civil service, men of very high 

 ability who had been hitherto entirely un- 

 known outside of their own regions. Such 

 discoveries would be of the greatest im- 

 portance to the college and the university. 



