JUNE 21, 1912] 
lege presidents who hold that position on ac- 
count of special training. I agree also as to 
the unit of organization consisting of the 
school or department, that being the natural 
and logical unit. J also agree in the main 
with the machinery proposed in paragraph 
(4). The only inadvisable thing, to my mind, 
would be the constitution of a permanent 
board of advisers—if you mean it to be per- 
manent. I would add that it might be wise 
to set a time limit upon the deanships— 
or directorships—whatever you care to call 
them. Personally, I doubt very seriously 
whether a single individual should be the con- 
trolling force in a department for more than, 
ten years. Your fifth section, which pro- 
poses the senate and the plenums, I think is 
also desirable. I assume that this senate and 
the plenums would legislate regarding the 
educational policy rather than regarding the 
financial policy. 
I heartily approve of your scheme for uni- 
versity control. In our university, as in 
others, the head of a department has alto- 
gether too much power—or uses it too arbi- 
trarily. Im fact, members of the faculty 
searcely dare to oppose his plans or to vote 
against his reelection, for fear of reprisals, 
unjust discriminations, etc. Thus a president 
or head of a department may become a sort of 
dictator, or like a political “boss.” 
Your reprint is a very moderate statement 
of the evils arising from the present system of 
college and university control. The worst of 
these evils is probably its discouraging and 
deterrent effect upon the men exercising the 
teaching functions in this class of institu- 
tions. And if this system continues without 
essential modifications, this form of its evil 
results is likely to grow with constantly ac- 
celerating rapidity. Self-respecting and gifted 
and independent men will not choose a career 
which may at any time be cut short or even 
totally ruined by the caprices of a presiden- 
tial “boss.” For myself, and much as I love 
and highly as I prize the office of the teacher, 
I should hesitate long before accepting, were 
I again young and asked, under the changed 
SCIENCE 
967 
conditions, to enter the life of a college or 
university professor. As in all similar cases, 
the remedy is by no means so clear as are the 
evils demanding a remedy. I am inclined to 
think that the details of any change of plan 
would need to differ in different institutions. 
Certainly they could not be precisely the same 
for the private and the state institution. 
And in both cases, care would not be of small 
importance to avoid changing the benevolent 
despot for the uncontrolled mob. It would 
seem also that some means should be devised 
for placing the control of instruction and the 
control of finances in largely different hands, 
while securing frank and cordial intercourse 
between the two. 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 
The Biology of the Seasons. By J. ARTHUR 
THomson. Tlustrated by WiLtiaAM SMITH. 
New York, Henry Holt and Company. 1911. 
The Natural History and Antiquities of Sel- 
borne, in the County of Southampton. By 
GiuBert Waite. With illustrations in color 
by Grorce Epwarp Cotiins, R.B.A. Lon- 
don, Macmillan & Company. 1911. 
It is worth while to consider these two 
books together, for resemblances and contrasts. 
They are typical of the centuries to which they 
belong, of the old and the new in natural his- 
tory. Professor Thomson points this out, in 
his introductory chapter. “The older nat- 
uralists—before Darwin’s day—made many 
careful pictures of the life of plants and ani- 
mals as it is lived in nature. The indefati- 
gable patience, the keen observation and the 
sympathetic insight of many of these pre- 
Darwinian naturalists must remain as models 
to which in these later days, with improved 
methods, we try to approximate. Gilbert 
White’s ‘Selborne,’ above all, remains ever- 
green. But the old records are for the most 
part contributions to Natural History rather 
than to Biology. To most of their authors 
there was wanting the biological key which 
Darwin first taught men to use.” But in 
post-Darwinian writings “biological ideas 
have become dominant; analysis has become 
more penetrating; the pictures have a broader 
