Decembee 27, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



887 



f power, a suspicion which is 

 strengthened by the fact that the more 

 there is available, as when it is supplied 

 under pressure, the quicker is the effect. 

 Some may look askance at so simple an ex- 

 planation when so complicated a phenom- 

 enon is involved, and they are quite justi- 

 fied in doing so. This explanation is ad- 

 vanced not as final, but as a theory well 

 worthy further examination by the experi- 

 mental method, the method by which only 

 can science be advanced, my purpose here 

 being to discover a problem in science as it 

 confronts the investigator rather than to 

 lead you on the smooth, well-worn but less 

 picturesque and romantic road in the do- 

 main of the already known. Let me, there- 

 fore, not tax your patience too far, enough, 

 however, to allow me to reaffirm that the 

 problems of science are not of mere acad- 

 emic interest; and that sooner or later 

 they relate themselves to human life. The 

 problem which has been outlined illus- 

 trates this principle, and it is one which I 

 venture to assert is well worth the severe 

 application of the investigator, entrench- 

 ing as it does on that field of the physiol- 

 ogy of the obscure processes of respiration, 

 digestion, enzymatic action, the relations of 

 crystalloids and colloids and the like — in 

 short on that field where the physiology of 

 living things, whether of animals or plants, 

 overlaps the as yet undeveloped knowledge 

 of coUochemistry, a field surrounded by a 

 wide horizon of the unknown, to pass 

 which even with a stumbling tread requires 

 a sure faith in the strength of the staff of 

 scientific method. 



Francis E. Lloyd 

 McGiLL University 



VNIVEBSITT BEGISTBATION STATISTICS 



The registration returns for November 1, 

 1912, of twenty-nine of the leading uni- 

 versities of the country will be found tabu- 



lated on the following page. Specific at- 

 tention should be called to the fact that 

 these universities are neither the twenty- 

 nine largest universities of the country in 

 point of attendance nor necessarily the 

 twenty-nine leading universities, nor is 

 there any desire on the part of the com- 

 piler to insist upon a quantitative standard 

 as the only proper basis for comparison of 

 our institutions of higher learning. Five 

 institutions exhibit a decrease in the total 

 enrollment (including the summer session) , 

 namely, Cornell, Illinois, Iowa, Johns Hop- 

 kins and Pennsylvania, while four insti- 

 tutions showed a loss in the total enroll- 

 ment last year, and three in 1910 and four 

 in 1909. The largest gains in terms of stu- 

 dent units, including the summer attend- 

 ance, but making due allowance by deduc- 

 tion for the summer session students who re- 

 turned for instruction in the fall, were reg- 

 istered by Columbia (1,069), California 

 (733), Minnesota (515), New York Uni- 

 versity (488), Texas (475), Nebraska 

 (391) and Harvard (303). Last year 

 there were four institutions that showed a 

 gain of over three hundred students, 

 namely, California, Columbia, Cornell and 

 Ohio State, whereas in 1911 and in 1910 

 there were seven institutions that registered 

 such an increase. Omitting the summer 

 session attendance, the largest gains have 

 been made by Indiana (990), Chicago 

 (700), California (690), Columbia (484), 

 New York University (375), Nebraska 

 (337), Texas (318), Cornell (284), North- 

 western (232) and Syracuse (209). It will 

 thus be seen that this year ten institutions 

 exhibited an increase of over two hundred 

 students in the fall attendance, as against 

 four in 1911, seven in 1910 and eleven in 

 1909. It will be observed that of these in- 

 stitutions four are in the east, five in the 

 west and one is in the south. 



According to the figures for 1912, the 



