352 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVI. No. 1189 



per cent., mathematics 10.37 per cent., history 

 4.23 per cent., English 1.96 per cent. These 

 changes are graphically presented in Fig. 1 

 and at the same time compared with the 

 changes of the two preceding decades. 



In general the interpretation pnt upon the 

 data in the previous article seems still to 

 maintain, namely (1) that the decline in the 

 percentage of students in the old-line sub- 

 jects is largely due to the introduction of 

 many new subjects like manual training, do- 

 mestic science, biology, agriculture, drawing, 

 etc., most of which appear in the tabulation 

 for the first time in the 1916 Eeport; and (2) 

 that the science group is holding its own 

 reasonably well. This is especially true of 

 physics and chemistry which are usually 

 offered in the third and fourth years of the 

 course. Since the high-school enrollment is 

 increasing very rapidly, 45.1 per cent. 1909- 

 1914, while the percentage of pupils in the 

 upper grades increases slowly (.49 per cent, 

 for the third grade, 1.8 per cent, for fourth 

 grade in the same five years), there is an in- 

 creasingly large niunber of students that get 

 no chance at physics and chemistry. 



The data given fop^ botany and zoology are 

 indicative that another decade will see these 

 biological subjects eliminated from the high- 

 school curriculum. I am not sure that such 

 a conclusion is justified, however; they may 

 merely appear under a new caption. The 

 data given for the whole United States may 

 obscure what is going on locally and progress 

 is usually local at first. Changes of opposite 

 character may quite effectually obliterate 

 each other when the data are massed. Thus 

 the interest in French is largely concentrated 

 in the New England States. More than 43 

 per cent, of the high-school pupils of Maine 

 and N'ew Hampshire are enrolled in French. 

 The average for the New England States is 

 37.7 per cent.; for the North Central States, 

 3.07 per cent. The percentage enrollment in 

 French has declined, though the enrollment 

 in the modern languages has increased, largely 

 due to the increase in Spanish in the Western 

 States, the percentage of enrollment in it be- 



ing 10.45 per cent, there, as compared with 

 0.76 per cent, in the North Central States. 



The largest decline in botany and zoology 

 has been in the North Atlantic States, where 

 the percentage of enrollment has dropped in 

 the five-year period from 16.28 per cent, to 

 6.46 per cent, in the former subject and in the 

 latter from 9.64 per cent, to 3.18 per cent. 

 But simultaneously the enrollment in biology 

 has risen from 2.35 per cent, to 14.38 per cent. 

 The percentage of enrollment in botany has 

 changed in the North Central States from 

 17.72 per cent, to 12.79 per cent, and in zo- 

 ology from 5.57 per cent, to 3.49 per cent.; 

 but at the same time the enrollment in biology 

 has risen from 0.13 per cent, to 1.64 per cent, 

 and in agriculture from 4.97 per cent, to 9.78 

 per cent. 



Botany and zoology are apparently giving 

 way to related subjects that either appeal to 

 school authorities as more effective educa- 

 tionally or to the public as more closely allied 

 to everyday affairs. In view of the fact, now 

 generally recognized, that knowledge and prin- 

 ciples gained in one field of study do not carry 

 over even into an adjacent field readily, it 

 must be considered good policy in science in- 

 struction to deal with subject matter that is 

 as nearly identical as possible with that which 

 pupils will handle in their major life inter- 

 ests. Elliot E. Downing 



The University of Chicago, 

 The School op Education 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



PROFESSOR ROBERTSON'S GIFT TO THE 

 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 



Dr. T. Beailsford Eobertson, professor of 

 biochemistry and pharmacology in the Uni- 

 versity of California, has executed a deed 

 donating to the University of California all 

 his patent rights in the growth-controlling 

 substance, " Tethelin," which he has succeeded 

 in isolating from the anterior lobe of the 

 pituitary body, and which has been employed 

 to accelerate repair in slowly healing wounds. 

 All profits resulting from this discovery are to 

 constitute an endowment, the income to be 

 applied to medical research. 



