July 26, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



109 



and criticism he had to stand, not only from 

 some of the natives (they must be forgiven), 

 but from many of his countrymen, who ought 

 to have knovm better (v?hich can be forgiven, 

 but not so easily). 



Dr. Freer brought to his work a superb 

 training, M.D. at Eush Medical and Ph.D. at 

 Munich, a large view of scientific problems 

 and their practical bearing and an almost 

 painful regard for accuracy and detail, which 

 I sometimes think can be got only in the Ger- 

 man schools. I think I am safe in saying 

 that Dr. Freer read and read carefully (and 

 some of us know how ruthlessly) every article 

 on whatever subject which has appeared in the 

 Philippine Journal of Science, through the 

 six years of its existence. This is the thing 

 he lived for, and I have had the satisfaction 

 of knowing that this journal is highly re- 

 garded in Europe and that over there he was 

 one of the best known of all Americans in the 

 east. But not so in America, where, I regret 

 to say, the ignorance of our own possessions is 

 surprising. 



When the man in the street, the " get-rich- 

 quick " schemer and some of the politicians 

 were striving to commercialize the work of the 

 bureau and pressure was being brought to 

 bear on the staff, in that time when ideals in 

 our work seemed about to suffer, when we 

 young and inexperienced ones were in danger 

 of losing sight of the lasting results, the work 

 that would tell, the tall gray-haired familiar 

 figure would loom up in the doorway and then 

 would ensue such a talk as only a big man, a 

 real scientist, can give, and we would take 

 heart again. Those were times of great in- 

 spiration to us, and now that his voice will no 

 longer be heard in those halls, we must live on 

 the memory of it. How soon everything be- 

 comes a memory ! 



The work of the bureau will continue, an- 

 other hand will guide, may be in a larger way 

 still, or in a smaller way ; but we, the workers, 

 at least will miss the master. 



Dr. Freer had not been well for the last two 

 years, and after returning from a trip with the 

 Secretary of the Interior, the Honorable Dean 

 C. Worcester, into northern Luzon, where he 



hoped to recuperate, died in Baguio, on April 

 18, at a little over fifty years of age. 



Warren D. Smith 

 May, 1912 



THE MASTER'S DEGREE AT RUTGERS 

 COLLEGE 



Upon unanimous recommendation of the 

 faculty the trustees of Rutgers College at 

 their recent meeting adopted the following 

 report of the faculty committee on graduate 

 degrees : 



Your committee on graduate degrees submits for 

 the consideration of the faculty and for its action 

 the following principles and consequent changes of 

 policy in the granting of the master's degree, and 

 recommends their adoption : 



Two principles stand foremost: first, the mas- 

 ter 's degree should be given a distinct and definite 

 place among academic honors; secondly, the degree 

 should be held in the esteem due a higher degree. 

 Those colleges and universities which grant it to 

 graduate students only after at least one year's 

 residence have thereby tried to restore it to honor, 

 but they have failed to give it a distinct place, for 

 it is usually merely a preliminary step towards the 

 doctor's degree, to be forgotten if that degree is 

 won, or to be a consolation to those who fail. In 

 short, the course of study, the method of study and 

 the aim of the student, all make it a doctor's 

 degree of an inferior type; and as such it is often 

 a reproach to the student in later years if it re- 

 mains his final higher degree. On the other hand, 

 those universities and colleges which grant it in- 

 absentia or after the completion of courses in 

 medicine, law or divinity are either making it still 

 less honorable or are making it a second degree 

 for precisely the same work and both superfluous 

 and meaningless. This is felt so generally to-day 

 among able and right-minded students that few 

 are willing to seek the degree under these latter 

 conditions. 



To the small college belongs especially, we be- 

 lieve, the task of rehabilitating this degree. Few 

 small colleges are in a position to give adequate 

 courses and facilities of research to candidates for 

 the doctor's degree and it is often their duty to 

 urge such students to go elsewhere; whereas, in 

 the case of the master's degree, provided this 

 degree is rehabilitated properly, the small college 

 may be able to offer excellent opportunities to the 

 student, to do so without great cost to the treasury 



