Febeuakt 12, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



233 



creased that the total time devoted to it by all 

 students remains a fairly constant factor. 

 Combining the data for the sciences, the 

 classics, the mathematics, the history and the 

 English in the table from -which Mr. Fisher 

 obtained his data, namely, the " Summaries," 

 on p. 1141 of the Commissioner of Educa- 

 tion's "Eeport for 1910," we get the graph 

 shown in Fig. 1 of this article. The lines 



Fig. 1. Diagram shows percentage of total 

 Hgh-sehool enrollment in XT. S. taking courses in 

 mathematics — ^x — ; foreign languages — o — ; 

 science — ; classics ; history , and Eng- 

 lish 0. Data from tabulation, page 1,141, Ee- 

 port U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1910. 

 1 mm. =: 1.2 per cent. 



show the percentage of students taking these 

 various subjects during the period of years 

 from 1890 to 1910, inclusive. As far as the 

 sciences, as a whole, go, it is evident that the 

 data show that the enrolment in the sci- 

 ences has increased much more rapidly than 

 the enrolment in the classics and more rapidly 

 than anything else in the tabulation except the 



English. I am aware that this conclusion is 

 probably as unjustifiable as Mr. Fisher's be- 

 cause the data for the sciences are incomplete 

 and the apparently erratic rise of the science 

 line is due to the continued introduction of 

 new data. Botany, zoology, agriculture and 

 domestic science are apparently only of suffi- 

 cient importance in recent years in the high- 

 school curricula to have their enrolment re- 

 ported. Yet the table gives the impression 

 that the decline in physics, chemistry, et 

 cetera, is due to the shift of students to these 

 newer subjects. 



I have examined with interest later reports 

 of the Commissioner of Education to see if 

 they confirm or contradict the conclusion to 

 which Mr. Fisher comes, namely, that the sci- 

 ences are declining in popularity with high- 

 school students and that the humanities are 

 constantly increasing their percentage of en- 

 rolment, but with the report of 1910 the com- 

 missioner ceased to print a statement of the 

 enrolment in the various subjects, evidently 

 appreciating the fact that such data, in the 

 form in which they had been given, are more 

 or less inconsequential. There is continued, 

 however, the report of those graduates of pub- 

 lic and private high schools who are preparing 

 for college and who elect either the classical 

 or the scientific course. These data are shown 

 in Fig. 2. The first part of the chart gives the 



Fig. 2. Diagram shows percentage of high- 

 school students going to college who select classical 



and scientific courses. 1 cm. = 2.7 per 



cent. . 



data for five-year periods; the latter part for 

 yearly periods. Both the dotted line repre- 

 senting the percentage of classic students and 



