730 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 725 



task to fill it, had it been held by a man of far 

 smaller intellectual calibre. The administra- 

 tive work alone would tax the abilities of our 

 greatest corporation heads, while the outlining 

 of its courses of study calls for educational 

 statesmanship of the first rank. . . . 



In President Eliot's case, he has borne the 

 multifarious burdens, including the duty of 

 meeting with the governing bodies and the 

 faculty, at the expense, we are tempted to say, 

 of the student body. By this we mean no 

 criticism; it is a fact, however, that he has 

 generally been a stranger, or a great name, 

 to the undergraduate body. Close relations 

 with it have been humanly impossible ; all one 

 could ask was the necessary intercourse with 

 the leaders of the teaching stail of only 566 

 persons. So when one of the leading under- 

 graduates was asked by a reporter the opinion 

 of that body as to the president's retirement, 

 he naively answered to the effect that " few of 

 us know him, but all regret the change " ! 

 True, Mr. Eliot has for some years past an- 

 nually met the newly entering class with one 

 of those exquisite addresses of counsel and 

 inspiration that will have high place among 

 the enduring monuments he has, uncon- 

 sciously enough, builded to himself. But be- 

 yond that the influence of his noble per- 

 sonality and his lofty personal life have pene- 

 trated to the undergraduate hardly more than 

 to the general public all over the country. 

 This has been a grave loss to college and na- 

 tion, for the moulding of character is, after 

 all, the primary duty of a university; even of 

 a teacher of science, as Professor Arthur A. 

 Noyes of the Institute of Technology admir- 

 ably points out in the current Science. " To 

 begin with," he says, " we [the teachers] set 

 him [the student] the example of rendering 

 unselfish service to others by giving him in- 

 dividual aid. . . ." And it is individual moral 

 aid that the Harvard student often so sadly 

 lacks. Who in our time has been better fitted 

 to extend it than President Eliot? 



Then there is the faculty. It takes a great 

 general to inspire 566 teachers; to recruit 

 their forces, to recognize the worthy and dis- 

 card the drones or the inefficient ; to lead them 

 on over the breastworks of tradition to new 



fields of honor and of service. That would 

 seem in itself to be a sufficient life's work for 

 any one man. And so we confess to having 

 been surprised to learn last year that a ma- 

 jority of a joint committee of the Overseers 

 and the corporation, including President 

 Eliot, found, after inquiry, that " the presi- 

 dent of the university does not need to be 

 relieved of any function that he now per- 

 forms; but that he ought to be relieved of de- 

 tails in many directions, and to have more 

 assistance than he now has." Would they 

 have been able to report the same with any 

 one else as president? Will the governing 

 boards not yet come to filling President Eliot's 

 place with two men, one a rector in charge 

 of everything pertaining to the scholastic 

 work, the students, and the teachers, and the 

 other a man of the type of the late William 

 H. Baldwin, Jr., of the Long Island Railway, 

 of marked business ability, of winning and up- 

 right personality — qualified to represent the 

 university in all of its relations to the public 

 and the nation? — New York Evening Post. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



First Course in Biology. By L. H. Bailet 



and W. M. Coleman. New York, The Mac- 



millan Co. 1908. 



The present work is divided into three parts,, 

 the first of which is devoted to botany and is 

 written by Professor Bailey, while the second 

 and third parts dealing respectively with 

 zoology and physiology are by Professor Cole- 

 man. As is remarked in the preface, there is 

 a tendency in secondary education to intro- 

 duce unit courses in biology in place of iso- 

 lated courses in botany, zoology and physi- 

 ology, and the authors have aimed to prepare- 

 a book which presents the elements of biology 

 as exemplified by plants, animals and man, 

 rather than separate treatises on different 

 fields of biological science. The book is de- 

 signed to afford material for three half years, 

 but the ground may be covered in a single- 

 year by omitting the matter in fine print. 



There is a useful introductory chapter on 

 the elementary facts of chemistry which are- 

 essential for the understanding of the bio- 



