SCIENCE 



Friday, March 26, 1915 



CONTENTS 

 Graduate Matheiruitical Instruction for Grad- 

 uate Students not intending to become 

 Mathematicians: Peopessok Cassids J. 

 Ketser 4-13 



Preliminary Report on a Shaler Memorial 

 Study of Coral Seefs: Professor W. JI. 

 Davis 455 



Scientific Notes and News 458 



University and Educational News 461 



IHsoussion and Correspondence: — 



Conrad Montgen: Professor R. A. Milli- 

 KAN. The Contents of a Sharlc's Stomach: 

 Chancellor David Starr Jordan. The 

 Scaled Amphibia of the Coal Measures: 

 Dr. Boy L. Moodie. The Cotton-ioorm 

 Moth: Professor John H. Gerould 462 



Scientific BooTcs: — 



Wiechmann on Sugar Analysis: Professor 

 C. S. Williamson, Jr. Basch's Electric 

 Arc Phenomena: E. G. Hudson 465 



Special Articles: — 



Light and the Sate of Growth in Plants: 

 Dr. D. T. MacDougal 467 



The American Society of Zoologists: Pro- 

 fessor Caswell Grave 469 



Societies and Academies: — 



The American Mathematical Society: Pro- 

 fessor P. N. Cole. The Biological Society 

 of Washington: M. W. Lyon, Jr. The New 



: Orleans Academy of Sciences: E. S. Cocks. 476 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to Professor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrison- 

 On-Hudsnn. N. Y. 



GEADUATE MATHEMATICAL INSTSUCTION 

 FOB GSADUATE STUDENTS NOT IN- 

 TENDING TO BECOME MATHE- 

 MATICIANSi 



In his "Annual Report" under date of 

 November last, the President of Columbia 

 University speaks in vigorous terms of 

 what he believes to be the increasing failure 

 of present-day advanced instruction to fulfil 

 one of the chief purposes for which insti- 

 tutions of higher learning are established 

 and maintained. 



President Butler, in the course of an in- 

 teresting section devoted to college and uni- 

 versity teaching, says: 



A matter that is closely related to poor teaching 

 is found in the growing tendency of colleges and 

 universities to vocationalize all their instruction. 

 A given department will plan all its courses of 

 instruction solely from the point of view of the 

 student who is going to specialize in that field. 

 It is increasingly difficult for those who have the 

 very proper desire to gain some real knowledge 

 of a given topic without intending to become spe- 

 cialists in it. A university department is not 

 well organized and is not doing its duty until it 

 establishes and maintains at least one strong sub- 

 stantial university course designed primarily for 

 students of maturity and power, which course will 

 be an end in itself and will present to those who 

 take it a general view of the subject-matter of a 

 designated field of knowledge, its methods, its 

 literature and its results. It should be possible 

 for an advanced student specializing in some other 

 field to gain a general knowledge of physical prob- 

 lems and processes without becoming a physicist; 

 or a general knowledge of chemical problems and 

 processes without becoming a chemist; or a gen- 

 eral knowledge of zoological problems and proc- 

 esses without becoming a zoologist; or a general 



1 An address delivered before Section A of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, December 30, 1914. 



