OCTOBEB 25, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



543 



body should be free to use its judgment for 

 the best interests of the individual student. 

 Rules and precedents have their value for 

 the regular progress of the student body, 

 but must be considered a means and not an 

 end. Justice to the individual is our 

 fundamental duty. Broadly considered, 

 just action for the individual carries with 

 it justice to the other schools and to the 

 public. We must beware lest in our blind- 

 ness and in our sloth and in our preoccu- 

 pation we bow down to the wood and stone 

 of rules and regulations. Let us set up 

 rather the god of individual education, 

 which is a spirit and not a' formula ; the 

 spirit which so successfully wrought in 

 medical education in the days of preceptor 

 and student ; the spirit which has produced 

 such apparent prodigies as Carl Witte 

 and young Sidis; the spirit which makes 

 an educational institution, not a machine 

 nor a purely reflex organism, but a human 

 entity with a human soul. 



B. P. Lyon 



TSE GEOGBAPSICAL DISTBIBUTION OF 



TSE STUDENT BODY AT A NUMBER 



OF UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES 



The accompanying table explains the 

 geographical distribution of the student 

 body of twenty-four American universities, 

 five New England colleges for men, five 

 colleges for women, one eastern and one 

 western school of technology and one 

 Pennsylvania college and engineering 

 school, for the academic year 1910-11, the 

 summer session students being omitted in 

 every instance. The corresponding figures 

 for 1909-10 were not compiled; those for 

 1908-9 may be consulted in the issue of 

 Science for October 1, 1909, those for 

 1907-8 in the issue for October 30, 1908, 

 those for 1906-7 in the issue for July 26, 

 1907, and those for 1904-5 in the issue for 

 October 6, 1905. To the table for 1909-10 



have been added the University of Syra- 

 cuse, the University of Texas and "Wash- 

 ington University, St. Louis. 



Comparing the attendance by divisions 

 of six eastern universities {Columbia, Cor- 

 nell, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton, 

 Yale) with the corresponding figures for 

 the same universities in 1908-9, we note 

 that there has been a gain for these uni- 

 versities, taken as a whole, in every divi- 

 sion, the largest increase in the actual 

 number of students, leaving the North 

 Atlantic division — in which all of these six 

 universities are located — out of considera- 

 tion, having been recorded in the North 

 Central division, where there has been a 

 gain of 310 students. The South Atlantic 

 division comes next, with an increase of 

 126 students, followed by the Western 

 division with a gain of 117 students, the 

 South Central with 89, foreign countries 

 with 27 and insular and non-contiguous 

 territories with 23. The total increase in 

 divisions outside of the North Atlantic in 

 the two years under comparison is 692, as 

 against a total increase of 527 in 1908-9 

 over 1906-7. Calculated on a percentage 

 Ijasis, the total gain of the six universities 

 in the North Atlantic division between 

 1909 and 1911 amounted to 11.6 per cent., 

 as against a gain of 13.3 per cent, outside 

 of the division mentioned. In 1908-9 the 

 percentage of increase in the North At- 

 lantic division over 1906-7 was 7.6 per 

 cent., as against a gain of 11.4 per cent, 

 in the other divisions combined. In the 

 North Atlantic, South Atlantic and North 

 Central divisions and in the insular and 

 non-contiguous territories all of the six 

 universities with the exception of Yale 

 show an increase in 1911 over 1909 ; in the 

 South Central division all of the six insti- 

 tutions have made gains, in the Western 

 division all show an increase except Prince- 

 ion, while in foreign countries all have 



