Mat 14, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



767 



taneously this thrill of rebirth? Who 

 shall maintain that the growth of any- 

 single institution, beginning at this time, 

 was due to the direct action or influence of 

 some particular individual or administra- 

 tion? No, this simultaneous action indi- 

 cates a much more profound cause than 

 this — an institution not to have been af- 

 fected by this broad, fundamental move- 

 ment must have definitely turned its back 

 upon the demand of the times and refused 

 to open its gates to an awakening people. 



effect on the efficiency of the institution; 

 and second, with respect to the possibilities 

 of university teaching as a profession. 

 In other words, first with respect to the 

 institution, and, second, with respect to 

 the staff. 



1. It will be seen that the proportion of 

 full professors in each staff has been a 

 continuously and rapidly decreasing one, 

 that the proportion of associate and as- 

 sistant professors has remained about con- 

 stant and that the proportion of instruct- 



Aside from its effect upon the curricula 

 of the institutions, a subject worthy of 

 careful study, this rapid growth has 

 wrought profound changes upon the na- 

 ture and composition of the teaching 



Charts 8 to 12 show the composition of 

 the staffs year by year. These charts, like 

 those of attendance, all show identically 

 the same trends. They should be studied 

 with reference to two items: First, the 



ors and assistants is most alarmingly in- 

 creasing. The cause of these trends at all 

 of our universities is a triple one; the 

 rapid increase in the number of students 

 for whom instruction is to be provided, 

 the failure of the incomes of the institu- 

 tions to keep proportionate step and a de- 

 plorable rivalry in bigness and external- 

 ism leading to unwise and unnecessary 

 expenditures for buildings and equipment. 

 It certainly means one thing as regards 



