296 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 73S 



been secured. A building will be erected, but 

 part of the money has been reserved for an 

 endowment. 



Peesident Charles F. Thwing, of Western 

 Reserve University, announces the completion 

 of a $500,000 fund for additional endowment 

 of Adelbert College and the college for women. 

 Of this amount $125,000 was offered by the 

 General Education Board, on the condition 

 that $375,000 be raised by the university. 



Hamline University, St. Paul, Minn., has 

 been offered $75,000 by the General Education 

 Board of New York on the condition that it 

 will raise three times the amount, making a 

 total of $300,000, a large portion of which is 

 to be added to the permanent endowment. 



The department of engineering of the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan has received a gift of the 

 library of the late George Y. Wisner and a 

 rotary engine of the value of $7,000 from Mr. 

 J. D. E. Lampson. 



Americans who have received honorary de- 

 grees at Oxford have made through President 

 Butler, of Columbia University, a gift of 

 $1,200 for the endowment fund. 



Lord Winterstoke has offered to give an 

 additional £15,000 towards the proposed Bristol 

 University. This will make a total contribu- 

 tion from him of £35,000. 



We are informed that the statement quoted 

 here from the daily papers to the effect that 

 the office of chancellor would be established at 

 the University of Michigan for President An- 

 gell to hold after his resignation is incorrect. 



The daily papers state that the presidency 

 of Dartmouth College has been offered to Mr. 

 S. W. McCall, member of congress from 

 Massachusetts since 1893 and a graduate of 

 Dartmouth College in the class of 1874. 

 Statements in regard to college presidencies 

 printed in the daily papers seem, however, to 

 have a large probable error. 



Dr. Pletcher B. Dresslar, associate pro- 

 fessor of education at the University of Cali- 

 fornia, has become head of the department of 

 philosophy and education in the University of 

 Alabama. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



harvard university and the MASSACHUSETTS 



institute of TECHNOLOGY 



To THE Editor of Science: I note in Sci- 

 ence of January 29 a quotation from a Boston 

 newspaper in regard to " Harvard University 

 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 

 ogy"; and it seems desirable that certain 

 erroneous impressions conveyed therein should 

 be corrected. 



The important misconception in the article 

 in question is implied in the statement: 

 " It seems probable that the taking from the 

 institute by Harvard of two of its leading 

 professors will bring up again the question of 

 a consolidation or of an alliance between these 

 two educational institutions." This is not 

 only not probable; it is entirely unthinkable, 

 to those acquainted with the true situation. 

 The opposition of the faculty and alumni of 

 the institute to this plan is founded on good 

 and substantial reasons, which are too gen- 

 erally understood and respected to be ques- 

 tioned again. 



The Technology faculty and alumni did not 

 oppose the proposed alliance from mere pride 

 in the achievements of the institute, or from 

 any narrow fear that it would lose its indi- 

 vidual reputation. They simply recognized 

 that Harvard and Technology represent dif- 

 ferent and incompatible educational ideals. 

 Harvard's ideal is that of graduate scientific 

 schools following a college course based on the 

 elective system. This, so far as engineering 

 goes, is an interesting and promising experi- 

 ment and one to which Technology can cheer- 

 fully contribute two of her honored sons. 

 Technology herself, however, stands for a dif- 

 ferent ideal, for a combination, from the be- 

 ginning, of a broad scientific training with 

 the elements of liberal culture, in a four years' 

 course, laid along the lines of a carefully bal- 

 anced group sj'stem of studies. This ideal has 

 not been fully realized; few ideals ever are; 

 yet in the flux of doubt and questioning which 

 seems to have engulfed the world of higher 

 education, the record of what the institute has 

 actually accomplished stands out as one of the 



