648 
Among the public positions filled by Pro- 
fessor Thomas was that of member of the 
board of examiners at the International Elec- 
trical Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1884 and 
of the Jury of Awards in the Department of 
Electricity at the Columbian Exhibition in 
1893. At the latter he was placed in charge 
of a very elaborate test of the life and effi- 
cieney of incandescent electric lamps. The 
results of this prolonged test unfortunately 
were never published by the government. He 
was an expert judge of electrical instruments, 
machinery and processes, and he was in con- 
sequence much in demand as a consulting 
engineer to design the electric plants of large 
establishments. 
As a teacher Professor Thomas excelled in 
the clearness and precision of his statements. 
These were matched by the success of his ex- 
perimental demonstrations. From his stu- 
dents he invariably demanded solid, substan- 
tial work; he was impatient with careless or 
slovenly ways either in the class-room or the 
laboratory, and constantly held up to his 
classes high standards of attainment. 
The new and substantial physics building 
at the Ohio State University is a monument 
to his persistent effort and to his good judg- 
ment in planning and working out various de- 
tails for convenience and efficiency. In the 
work of his department and all that per- 
tained to it he was indefatigable; to it he 
gave more than the full measure of time and 
energy. 
Professor Thomas was a genial friend; none 
more so. The writer was favored with that 
friendship for many years, and he here gladly 
gives expression to his deep appreciation of 
all that this friendship meant to him. Only 
the bereaved wife, the son and the daughter 
know what it means to lose a faithful hus- 
band and a fond father. 
Henry §. CarHart 
ATTENDANCE AT GERMAN UNIVERSITIES 
Tue Deutscher Universitits-Kalender for 
the summer semester of 1912, which has just 
been published, contains a table showing the 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 904 
enrollment of the twenty-one German uni- 
versities during the winter semester of 1911— 
12. The table shows that there were in at- 
tendance 57,398 students, as contrasted with 
57,200 for the preceding summer semester. 
This is, however, exclusive of 5,563 auditors, 
who, if added, would run the grand total to 
62,961, as against 61,274 during the summer 
semester. The University of Berlin continues 
to lead the list with an enrollment of 9,829 
matriculated students, of whom over 5,000 are 
enrolled in the faculty of philosophy, about 
2,000 in the faculty of medicine (including 
pharmacy and dentistry), 2,412 in law, and 
427 in Protestant theology. In addition there 
were in attendance 776 male auditors and 258 
female auditors, bringing the total enrollment 
of the university during the past winter sem- 
ester to 10,863, as against 10,720 during the 
winter semester of 1910-11. The Prussian 
University of Berlin is followed by the Ba- 
varian University of Munich, which had an 
enrollment of 6,797 matriculated students and 
782 auditors. The Saxon University of Leip- 
zig ranks third with 5,170 matriculated stu- 
dents and 925 auditors. The remaining uni- 
versities rank in point of attendance as fol- 
lows: Bonn, 4,279; Breslau, 3,113; Halle, 
3,112; Gottingen, 2,637; Freiburg, 2,614; 
Heidelberg, 2,418; Miinster, 2,314; Strass- 
burg, 2,298; Marburg, 2,014; Tiibingen, 1,994; 
Jena, 1,831; Konigsberg, 1,694; Kiel, 1.661; 
Wiirzburg, 1,583; Giessen, 1,428; Erlangen, 
1,251; Greifswald, 1,228; Rostock, 955; the 
figures in each case being inclusive of audi- 
tors. During the winter semester of 1893-94 
the universities ranked as follows: (1) Ber- 
lin, (2) Munich, (3) Leipzig, (4) Halle, 
(5) Wiirzburg, (6) Bonn, (7) Breslau, 
(8) Tiibingen, (9) Erlangen, (10) Freiburg, 
(11) Heidelberg, (12) Strassburg, (13) Mar- 
burg, (14) Gottingen, (15) Greifswald, (16) 
Konigsberg, (17) Jena, (18) Giessen, (19) 
Kiel, (20) Rostock, and (21) Minster. It 
will thus be seen that there has been no 
change in the order of the three largest uni- 
versities, but that several institutions which 
were in the lower half of the list eighteen 
years ago, have grown sufliciently to advance 
