342 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 63. 



direct result of a vigorous movement in- 

 stituted bj^ Prof. H. J. Furber, of the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago, who in the latter part of 

 May, 1S95, addressed to the Ministry of 

 Public Instruction a memorial, calling at- 

 tention to the appreciable increase in the 

 number of Americans engaged in post-grad- 

 uate work in Europe and the vastly greater 

 percentage of foreign students at the Ger- 

 man universities as compared with those of 

 France. The memorial recited that at the 

 Sorbonne there are but 30 Americans en- 

 rolled, while some 200 are at present in 

 attendance at the University of Berlin, and 

 in the smaller institutions of France and 

 Germany the disparity is even greater. 



Unless it be assumed, argues Mr. Furber, 

 that France is intellectually inferior to Ger- 

 many, the indisposition on the part of 

 American students to avail themselves of 

 the advantages oifered by the French schools 

 would appear to indicate either a failure to 

 appreciate the unequalled excellence of the 

 latter in many directions, or else some ob- 

 stacle preventing the enjoyment of the op- 

 portunities which they afford. It is diffi- 

 cult to conceive, however, that our country- 

 men are without knowledge of the refine- 

 ment of culture for which the French schools 

 are so justly famous, g^nd the inference seems 

 conclusive that the scarcity of American 

 students in France is attributable to the 

 difficulties which beset the foreigner in gain- 

 ing admission to their courses. 



In Germany an American is allowed to 

 matriculate and qualify for a degree upon 

 the presentation of a bachelor's degree from 

 some reputable institution of learning in 

 the United States, and throughout his 

 course is at liberty to elect the studies he 

 may desire to pursue. He is free from ex- 

 amination, except when he chooses to apply 

 for a degree, preparatory to which it is in- 

 cumbent upon him to submit a satisfactory 

 thesis upon some subject of original research 

 in which he has been personallj' engaged. 



In fact, the only formalities required of the 

 candidate for academic honors are the fur- 

 nishing of credentials certifying to the pro- 

 ficiency of his early schooling, a certain 

 minimum time spent at the universities of 

 Germany, and a severe test of his abiUties 

 at the termination of his course. 



In France, on the contrary, the student 

 is subject to many rigorous restrictions 

 which practically exclude the greater num- 

 ber of Americans. The bachelor's degree 

 is not accepted as sufficient for entrance to 

 many of the faculties, and the student is 

 limited to an arbitrarilj' prescribed course 

 of study and subjected to severe tests of 

 progress at frequent intervals, depriving 

 him in no small degree of his freedom of 

 research and original investigation. Stu- 

 dents from the United States are, with rare 

 exceptions, men who have passed beyond 

 the rudimentary grades of education and 

 attained the I'ank of specialists. Thej"^ are 

 of intellectual maturity graduates of our 

 universities and colleges, and are in quest 

 not of discipline but of knowledge. They 

 do not desire that any essential requirement 

 in the French regulations be suspended, or 

 that the grade of scholarship necessary 

 either to matriculation or to graduation be 

 lowered in their favor. They do insist, 

 however, that the peculiarity of their pur- 

 pose and position be dul}' considered, and 

 that they be permitted to fulfill through 

 some equivalent the requirements which, 

 owing to the very nature of their case, are 

 otherwise virtually prohibitive. The Ameri- 

 can student is not averse to the requirement 

 of a somewhat lengthy term of residence in 

 France, but he does maintain that he shall 

 have the privilege of utilizing the period of 

 study as he shall deem most profitable and 

 most nearly in accordance with the plan 

 which he has mapped out for himself. 



On the 7th of June, Mons. M. Breal, the 

 eminent French educator and member of 

 the Institute of France, published in the 



