NOVEJIBER 30, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



693 



vey. The insinuation that the proposal to 

 pay for the Arkansas reports could have had 

 an improper motive may be set aside as un- 

 worthy of his own standing and mine. But I 

 deny his charge that the survey is an un- 

 democratic organization which abuses its 

 power to the disadvantage of state surveys or 

 of individual geologists. It encourages the 

 organization of state surveys and seeks to co- 

 operate with them in all practicable ways. It 

 endeavors to maintain cordial cooperative re- 

 lations with all working and teaching geolo- 

 gists, and welcomes all practical suggestions 

 which may lead to a closer touch with them. 

 That its attitude in these relations is neces- 

 sarily controlled by the obligations of a na- 

 tional bureau to the people has already' been 

 said. 



The last quarter of a century has been one 

 of extraordinary development in geology. The 

 leaders in this progress have been members of 

 the United States Survey, and by virtue of 

 their services it has had a dominant influence 

 in the development of methods and of knowl- 

 edge. To serve on its staff, in whatever ca- 

 pacity he is qualified by experience to fill, is 

 no discredit to any geologist, nor is it a reflec- 

 tion on any geologist, however able and hon- 

 ored, that the work which he did a decade or 

 two ago should require revision and should be 

 revised according to the latest standards of 

 topographic and geologic skill by the specially 

 trained members of the national survey's per- 

 manent staff. „ -TA -rrr 



Charles D. Walcott, 



A NEW VARIETY OP HONORARY PH.D. 



What constitutes an acceptable thesis for 

 a Ph.D. degree is a problem which at some 

 time has engaged the attention probably of 

 every department and surely of every graduate 

 faculty in our real universities. Of course 

 it matters little to those institutions which 

 still continue, in defiance of the best opinion 

 and practise both here and abroad to grant the 

 degree honoris causa or as a reward for the 

 completion of a set time or of a specific series 

 of courses. But it was a matter of astonish- 

 ment to learn that graduate schools with 

 higher ideals are given to accepting as theses 



publications which have no evident relation 

 to themselves, if indeed these papers reflect in 

 any way the influence of the degree-granting 

 institution. Within the past two years and 

 at two different universities of good standing 

 in the country, I have asked by chance what 

 the work of a newly introduced doctor had 

 been and was shown in each case a voluminous 

 government document. Careful examination 

 not only demonstrated that the publication 

 was everywhere attributed to the direction and 

 support of the particular division, the name 

 of which appeared prominently printed on 

 the cover and title pages, but also failed to 

 disclose anywhere in the text the most ob- 

 scure reference to the institution which had 

 crowned the writer with the coveted laurel. 

 Perhaps it is wrong to question the procedure, 

 but the student had not been actually in resi- 

 dence for more than a brief period ' because 

 you know,' the professor in charge naively re- 

 marked, ' he could not find the material or the 

 literature for that work here, and then, too, 

 the bureau paid all the expenses of the work.' 

 One could not help wondering what part in 

 the work the aforesaid professor had played 

 when he had evidently not even assigned the 

 topic for investigation. 



But the climax appeared in a communica- 

 tion which one of my own colleagues received 

 the other day. A long-time student and good 

 friend of his had left his work for the doctorate 

 partly finished to take a government position 

 in the national capital, and after some time 

 there wrote regarding his still unfinished 

 thesis, " Unless some arrangements can be 

 made by which the university will accept, as 

 has been done in recent instances, and as is 

 done by other universities, an official publica- 

 tion as fulfilling the thesis requirements, I 

 shall have to abandon the plan of taking my 



degTee from and try 



another institution." The cordial relations 

 existing between the two parties preclude any 

 thought that an intellectual hold-up was at- 

 tempted; it was merely the frank statement 

 of the facts as the younger man in his official 

 intercourse had found them. If the plan is 

 recognized as feasible in official circles, as 

 this and other circumstantial evidence would 



