October 12, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



351 



sion you will infer that our molecular theo- 

 ries of magnetism are j'et in a very unsatis- 

 factory state in spite of the light which 

 Langevin's ideas have thrown upon the 

 subject, and that experiments upon the 

 magnetic properties of bodies have not yet 

 contributed in a very striking manner to 

 our knowledge of molecular structure. 



A. P. Wills 

 Columbia TJnivessitt 



ENROLLMENT IN SCIENCE IN THE 

 HIGH SCHOOLS 



In the issue of Science for February 12, 

 1915 (Vol. XLI., pp. 232-235), I called atten- 

 tion to the significance of the data given by 

 the Commissioner of Education in regard to 

 the enrollment in science studies in the high 

 schools of the United States. The appearance 

 of additional statistics for the five-year period 

 1910-1914 in the 1916 Eeport makes it possible 

 to review the situation in the light of the 

 new figures. 



The table on page 489 of the Eeport of the 

 Commissioner of Education for 1916, Vol. H., 

 gives a summary of the enrollment in various 

 subjects of the high-school curriculum in 1910 

 and 1915, both in terms of the numbers en- 

 rolled and in the percentage of the total en- 

 rollment. It is rather startling to find that 

 in this five-year period there has been a drop 

 of 44 per cent, in the enrollment in botany, 

 stated in terms of the per cent, of the total 

 enrollment, and one of 51.3 per cent, in zoology. 

 The decline in botany has been from 16.34 per 

 cent, to Y.19 per cent, and in zoology from 7.88 

 per cent, to 4.04 per cent. Physics has nearly 

 held its own, changing from 14.79 per cent, to 

 14.28 per cent, while chemistry has made a 

 slight gain, from 7.13 per cent, to 7.63 per cent. 

 The other old-line sciences have all dropped off, 

 physiology and physical geography quite 

 heavily. Nor is the gain in the newer sci- 

 ences enough to counterbalance the loss in 

 the old. The percentage enrollment in agri- 

 culture has increased from 4.55 per cent, to 

 6.92 per cent., in domestic science from 4.14 

 I)er cent, to 12.69 per cent. The total per- 



centage enrolled in science in 1909-1910 was 

 91.99 per cent., in 1914^1915 86.16 per cent., a 

 drop of 5.83 per cent. 



It seems strange that in an age when ap- 

 plied science is increasingly evident on every 

 hand in the commonplace appliances of home, 

 farm, factory and office that there should be 

 any decline in the relative interest in science 



,|>«>O0OO000, 



Fig. 1. Showing percentage of total enrollment 

 in the high schools of the United States pursuing 

 certain groups of studies, as follows: Class- 

 ics, ; English, oooooo ; History — . . ; 



Mathematics, -x-x-x- ; Modern Language .-~,~^-_^ ; 

 Science, . 1 mm. = 1.2 per cent. 



in the high schools. It is fairly evident that 

 the high-school science course is in some way 

 out of joint with the times. This decline in 

 the science enrollment is not so alarming, 

 however, when compared with changes in the 

 other groups of subjects. The modern lan- 

 guage group is the only one of the traditional 

 subjects that shows an increase, that a small 

 one of 1.5 per cent. The classics drop 11.04 



