NOVEMBEH 20, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



713 



perature in roughly proportional amounts, 

 and permits us, without undue assump- 

 tions, to explain such remarkable differ- 

 ences of gradient. There is much work to 

 be done in this direction, for well-known 

 cases exist where exceptional gradients in 

 deep borings have been encountered— ex- 

 ceptional both as regards excess and de- 

 ficiency. 



John Joly 



{To be continued) 



ABSTRACTS FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT 



OF THE PRESIDENT OF CORNELL 



UNIVERSITY 



The number of students enrolled in the 

 university for the year ending September, 

 1908, was 4,465, of whom 3,734 were regu- 

 larly enrolled students during the academic 

 year from September to June, and the rest 

 attendants at the summer session and the 

 winter school in agriculture. This is an 

 increase of 240 over the enrollment for the 

 preceding year and an increase of more 

 than 1,000 over the enrollment of four 

 years ago, when the figures were 3,423. 



A little more than half (2,025) of these 

 3,734 regular students came from New York 

 State. From Pennsylvania came 322 ; New 

 Jersey, 190; Ohio, 155; Illinois, 108, and 

 Massachusetts, 101, while 690 came from 

 forty-five other states and territories of the 

 United States (including Porto Rico, Ha- 

 waii and the Philippine Islands), and 143 

 from twenty-eight different foreign coun- 

 tries (including China, 28; Cuba, 14 

 Argentine Republic, 14; Canada, 12 

 India, 11 ; Japan, 11 ; Mexico, 7 ; Brazil, 7 

 Peru, 6 ; England, 4 ; Australia, 3 ; Switzer- 

 land, 3, etc.). 



The total number of students who have 

 been enrolled in the university since it 

 opened in 1868 is approximately 26,000 

 and the number of degrees conferred dur- 

 ing these forty years is 10,475, more than 



three fourths of which have been conferred 

 by President Sehurman in the last sixteen 

 years. The number of degrees granted in 

 June, 1908, was 715, of which 649 were 

 first degrees and 66 advanced degrees. 



The number of members of the instruct- 

 ing staff is given as 548, and, excluding the 

 members of the staff of the Medical College 

 in New York City, the faculty at Ithaca is 

 found to be made up as follows: 75 pro- 

 fessors, 64 assistant professors, 6 lecturers, 

 122 instructors and 144 assistants. Twenty 

 years ago there were 33 professors, 4 asso- 

 ciate professors, 13 assistant professors, 41 

 instructors and 4 assistants. 



President Sehurman dwells on the neces- 

 sity of higher professorial salaries for the 

 purpose of maintaining the dignity, impor- 

 tance and attractiveness of the teaching 

 profession in America. If intellect is to 

 be well-trained in America there must be 

 tangible evidence that the public set a fair 

 value on highly educated men. Otherwise 

 the best brains of the country will be lost 

 to the teaching profession. As Burke has 

 well said, "The degree of estimation in 

 which any profession is held becomes the 

 standard of the estimation in which the 

 professors hold themselves." Hence it is 

 scarcely an exaggeration to assert that the 

 provision in Colonel Vilas's magnificent 

 bequest to the University of Wisconsin for 

 the establishment of certain professorships 

 with salary of not less than $8,000 each 

 will, if it becomes at once effective, mark 

 an epoch in the development of a proper 

 standard for the estimation of professors 

 in the United States. 



The problem of securing men of the 

 highest character, ability and training to 

 fill professorial vacancies is at best a diffi- 

 cult one. Cornell has never limited herself 

 to the graduates of the university, to the 

 state in which it is located, or even to 

 America. Two years ago a gentleman in 



