June 30, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



693 



divisions during the course. THs shows that 

 no class could have been even approximately 

 grouped for the entire course on the basis of 

 the first year's averages. 



Finally those men in the group who had 

 first year averages of less than 72 per cent, 

 were picked out. It was thought that these 

 were the borderline men, students who might 

 have been dismissed from school had their 

 grades been only one or two per cent, lower. 

 The object was to observe the further progress 

 of this group with regard to the other students. 

 There were 15, or 16.8 per cent., of the stu- 

 dents with a first year average under 72 per 

 cent. Forty per cent, of them had their pre- 

 medical training at Washington University, 40 

 per cent, at the smaller colleges, and 20 per 

 cent, at state universities. 



At the end of the fourth year 40 per cent. 

 of these men had grades above the average 

 for the senior year, 20 per cent, ranked in the 

 upper third of the senior class, 27 per cent, in 

 the middle third, and only 53 per cent, in the 

 lower third. Of the 20 per cent, in the upper 

 third of the senior class, one third had pre- 

 medical training at Washington University, one 

 third at a small college, and one third at a 

 state university. The middle and lower thirds 

 were equally divided between the small colleges 

 and the universities. So it would seem that if 

 poor preliminary training were the cause for 

 the low first year average of these students we 

 must blame the universities equally with the 

 smaller colleges, for the percentage of advance 

 in grade was equally divided between students 

 from Washington University and such colleges 

 as Central, Missouri Valley, Southwestern, 

 and Christian Brothers'. 



As almost 50 per cent, of these men who 

 might easily have been dismissed from school 

 on their first year's record made mediocre and 

 even excellent students during their senior year, 

 the question arises as to how many of the men 

 with first year grades just below 70 per cent, 

 who are now dismissed from school might 

 reach the upper third of their class were they 

 allowed to remain. Can we say it would be 

 less than 20 per cent.? Yes, because many 

 questions are considered in giving a student a 

 grade just under or just over 70 per cent.. 



amongst them being just this possibility of im- 

 provement. However, these figures should 

 make us in the future think even more carefully 

 before declaring a student unfit for the study 

 of medicine on the basis of his first year's 

 record. 



M. F. Weymann 

 Washington Univeesitt 

 School of Medicine 



CHARLES BASKERVILLE 



The death of Charles Baskerville, last Jan- 

 uary, was a great calamity to the chemical pro- 

 fession. His end was premature — he was near- 

 ing 52 years of age— and it brought a poignant 

 sense of bereavement to his numerous friends. 

 He did not live to see his life's work done, but 

 he departed from a world which will evermore 

 be the richer for having once had him. 



Deeply and peculiarly American, an aristocrat 

 by birth, Charles Baskerville was nevertheless 

 broad and cosmopolitan in all his educational 

 work, and honored by his students, pedagogic 

 associates and professional colleagues. A man 

 of high qualitj' whose poise and personality 

 early established leadership, his cheerfulness, 

 sympathetic helpfulness and constant produc- 

 tivity brought the admiration and respect of all 

 who had the privilege of being near him. 



For thirty years Charles Baskerville occupied 

 a prominently successful position in chemical 

 education (University of North Carolina, his 

 alma mater, 1891-1904 ; College of the City of 

 New York since 1904); but, in addition, he 

 found time for the conduct of original re- 

 searches of value (fii-st on the rare earths and 

 later on the chemistry of anesthetics), while his 

 inventions in the refining and hydrogenation of 

 vegetable oils, plastic compositions and rein- 

 forced metals are of recognized industrial im- 

 portance. 



In addition to 190 educational, scientific and 

 technologic papers, Charles Baskerville was the 

 author of the following books: "School Chem- 

 istry," 1898; "Key to School Chemistry," 

 1898; "Radium and Its Applications in Medi- 

 cine," 1906; "General Inorganic Chemistry," 

 1909; "Laboratory Exercises" (with R. W. 

 Curtis), 1909'; "Progressive Problems in Chem- 

 istry" (with W. L. Estabrooke), 1910; "Quali- 



