SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Feiday, Makch 5, 1909 



CONTENTS 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 

 Adjusting the College to American Life: 

 De. Abraham Flexnek 361 



Danger arising from the Popularization of 

 the College: Pbofessob Wiluam North 

 KiCE 372 



The Paleontological Society 376 



Engineers of Wisconsin form State Society . . 376 



The Darwin Centenary 377 



The Carnegie Foundation for the Advance- 

 ment of Teaching 378 



Scientific Notes and News 379 



University and Educational News 382 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 

 Forest Preservation: De. At.t.ebtok B. 

 Cdshman. Magnetic Rocks: Ds. G. D. 

 Haeris. New Phenomenon in Electric Dis- 

 charge: Professor Francis B. Niphee. 

 The Dating of Publications: Dr. Max 

 Morse 383 



Scientific Books: — 



Deegener on Die Metamorphose der In- 

 sekten: Professor Wiixiam Morton 

 Wheeler. C.-E. A. and A. B. Win-slow on 

 The Systematic Relationships of the Coc- 

 cacew: Professor F. P. Goeham. Crane 

 on Gold and Silver: Dr. Theo. B. Com- 

 STOCK. Voss Veier das Wesen der Mathe- 

 matik : Peofessoe G. A. Millee 384 



Scientific Journals and Articles 392 



A New Variety of Asymmetry exhibited by 

 the Nitrogen Atom: Pbofessor J. Bishop 

 Tingle 393 



Russian Research in Metabolism: De. Fean- 

 cis G. Benedict 394 



Special Articles: — 

 A Mendelian View of Sex Heredity: Peo- 

 fessoe W. E. Castle 395 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to tlie Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Uudson, N, Y. 



ADJUSTING THE COLLEGE TO AMERICAN 

 LIFE'- 



From a constructive point of view, the 

 existing college represents for the most 

 part tendencies rather than design. It has 

 in the main simply come to be what it now 

 is. True, the gardeners have pruned a bit 

 here and tied up a bit there. But the 

 hedge has been trampled down, and things 

 have been suffered to grow with less re- 

 gard to the demands of the market than 

 to the fertility of the soil. Provisionally, 

 this style of farming has its advantages. 

 It at least instructs us as to what will grow 

 under given conditions. There comes a 

 tim.e, however, when indiscriminate abun- 

 dance and variety must submit to a pro- 

 cess of evaluation; when wasteful natural 

 productivity is no longer best adapted to 

 meet the demonstrated or calculable needs 

 of a well-defined social organization ; when, 

 in a word, we must ask which part of the 

 crop has value, and to what end. This 

 necessity is, I take it, reflected in the ques- 

 tion proposed for to-day's discussion. 



Two things have happened in higher 

 education during the last thirty years: in 

 the richer and more progressive sections of 

 the country the traditional one-curricu- 

 lum college has been practically demol- 

 ished ; the graduate school has been evolved. 

 The demolition of the old-fashioned col- 

 lege helped, of course, to make a clearing 

 for the graduate school, and the concur- 

 rent growth of the graduate school 



*An address given before the Section of Educa- 

 tion at the Baltimore meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science. 



