November 11, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



465 



As a matter of fact, it would not be difficult 

 to find scores of just such mixed professorships 

 and instructorships in colleges all over this 

 country. I think it would be safe to assert that 

 it is only in the larger universities, relatively 

 few in number, that specialization has been 

 carried to anything like the degree suggested. 



The cases of the colleges in this state may be 

 cited as examples. In one, geology is taught 

 by a professor of astronomy, in another by a 

 professor of agricultural chemistry; in a third 

 a professor of chemistry teaches mineralogy. 

 And it is only fair to these several professors 

 to say that in each case the instruction given is 

 excellent. 



That Maine is not unique in this respect is 

 indicated by notices of vacancies in college 

 faculties that have come to my attention dur- 

 ing the past two years. In one case an in- 

 structor was needed in chemistry and geology, 

 in another an associate professor in zoology and 

 geology, in colleges one of which was near the 

 Atlantic coast (not in Maine), and the other 

 not far from the Pacific. 



In my own teaching experience I held for a 

 number of years a position in which I was ex- 

 pected, and did make a brave attempt, to teach 

 chemistry, geology, botany and zoology, with a 

 little physics throvra. in for good measure ; this 

 in an institution which would be called a col- 

 lege almost anywhere outside of New England. 



There are potent reasons why this condition 

 of affairs exists still, and must go on existing 

 for some time to come, whatever may be said as 

 to its desirability; the most obvious being the 

 limitations placed upon our colleges by lack of 

 money. However, I am not altogether certain 

 that the condition is undesirable. 



I realize, of course, that Professor Gortner 

 and I are not thinking of exactly the same 

 thing. His attention is, naturally, on the more 

 advanced courses, in which students are, and 

 should be, in charge of more or less narrow (I 

 use the word in no derogatory sense) special- 

 ists; mine is on the more general courses, in 

 the conduct of which teaching ability and per- 

 sonality are at least as important as erudition. 

 There is still a large and important field for 

 the old natural-history type of instructor, and 



I for one sincerely hope that his species will not 

 soon become extinct. 



Freeman F. Burr 

 Central Maine Power Company, 

 Augusta 



shark and remora 



To THE Editor of Science : The account by 

 Dr. Spaeth in Science of October 21 of sym- 

 biotic relations between a shark and a remora 

 recalls some observations made by the writer 

 in San Diego, Cal., in ISTovember, 1920. The 

 head of a Tuna Shark, Isuropsis glauca, had 

 been cut off by the writer and carried to the 

 laboratory of the Scripps Institution, at La 

 Jolla. After some dissections had been made 

 there was found on the table a small remora, 

 three inches long, that had evidently taken 

 refuge in the mouth or gill-chamber of the 

 shark. 



H. W. ISToRRis 



Grinnell College 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Life of Alfred Newton, Professor of Compara- 

 tive Anatomy, Camhridge University, 188Q- 

 1907. By A. F. E. Wollaston. With a 

 preface by Sir Archibald Geikie. New 

 York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1921. 332 pp. 

 The loose organization of English University 

 affairs, the lack of coherence in the scheme of 

 the institutions, have had their advantages and 

 disadvantages. When in Cambridge a number 

 of years ago, I met an eminent vpriter whose 

 original and heterodox ideas about religion 

 had lately been published in a book. "What 

 do the orthodox divines of the University 

 think of him ? " I asked a resident. " They 

 do not even know that he exists ! " Perhaps 

 that was a slight exaggeration, but the inde- 

 pendence of the teachers is such that they do 

 very nearly as they please, and wax or wane 

 in reputation and even income according to 

 their ability to command attention or win 

 support. The centrifugal tendency has dom- 

 inated the intellectual life of the place, in- 

 creasing with the inevitable specialization of 

 modern times. Each department is, as it 

 were, at the end of a long lane, which no one 



