798 



SGIENCm 



[N.S. VoL.XXVin. No. 727 



quite dark outside, althougla it may have 

 seemed mucii lighter inside than out for some 

 time. Here again the difference may be due to 

 the blue rays which are most conspicuous at 

 twilight. If this hypothesis were correct it 

 would seem natural that the mercury vapor 

 light would be most, the ordinary arc less, 

 and the sodium carbon of the flaming arc 

 least attractive to the moths. 



In July when a swarm of brown-tail moths 

 swept over Boston the vicinity would have 

 been a good time to observe the effects of the 

 various kinds of lights. Any information 

 which the readers of Science could furnish 

 would be gratefully received. 



Owen Bryant 



CoHASSET, Mass. 



QUOTATIONS 



THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY AND THE COLLEGE 



PRESIDENT 



Just now, in academic circles, there is a 

 strong disposition to question the necessity 

 and the usefulness of the president in Ameri- 

 can colleges and universities. It is claimed 

 that this official as now existing is an anomaly 

 in academic development. He is a monarch 

 in what should be a democracy. While our 

 universities are growing at an amazing rate, 

 in wealth, in influence, and in population, the 

 position of the individual professor in the uni- 

 versity is not improving. In dignity and in 

 freedom his condition compares very unfavor- 

 ably with that of his colleagues in Germany 

 or England. It is claimed that one prime 

 cause of this evil condition is found in the 

 exaggerated importance attached to the uni- 

 versity president, who holds a monopoly of 

 public attention on the one hand and of 

 academic power on the other. If all authority 

 of the president, and most of that of our 

 boards of trustees were relegated to the uni- 

 versity faculty, it is claimed that these evils 

 would disappear. 



In this statement there is considerable 

 truth. The university president is an 

 anomaly. He represents a temporary stage in 

 the development of the democracy of science, 

 of the republic of letters. The university as 



such requires no leader. Its executive should 

 be its servant, and as time goes on scientific 

 eminence will more and more outbalance ad- 

 ministrative skill. The university president 

 of the next century, should the title continue, 

 will stand in relations to the university faculty 

 very different from those which now obtain. 

 All this we may admit, but in the institutions 

 of higher education, as they now exist in 

 America, the practical need of a continuous 

 and firm-handed executive can not be ques- 

 tioned. In my judgment the president ought 

 not to stand alone in this responsibility; no 

 appointment in the faculty and no single act 

 of importance, as related to academic work, 

 should be accomplished without the consent 

 and approval of the academic faculty. The 

 president should represent his colleagues in 

 all forward movements. But the initiative 

 should rest somewhere, and as things now are 

 it should rest with the college president. I 

 use the term "college president" advisedly, 

 not " university president." A university 

 actually organized needs no central controlling 

 authority, but a college takes its individuality, 

 its color and its movement from some master 

 spirit. To call our colleges universities does 

 not make them such. To draw the line be- 

 tween " college " and " university," terms 

 which with us still mean the same thing, is 

 now the most important matter in our higher 

 education. 



The formation of boards of control, made 

 partly of professors, partly of alumni, and in 

 part of outside business men and men of 

 leisure, as known in England and Australia, 

 is in every way less satisfactory than is the 

 American adjustment at its best. Such 

 boards seldom handle investments to the best 

 advantage, while they are likely to occupy 

 themselves to the more interesting labor of 

 meddling with the individual affairs of the 

 college faculty. 



In a university, as finally organized, the pro- 

 fessors are equal. Their position in science 

 and in education is assured. They are chosen 

 by their fellows on the strength of well-estab- 

 lished reputations. It is not necessary to in- 

 troduce on short notice a dozen new instruc- 

 tors to meet an incoming class of unusual size. 



