August 24, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



293 



a question of time when every university 

 will recognize the fact that it must adapt 

 itself to the possibilities of the schools, and 

 that ancient or artificial standards can be 

 maintained only so long as they approve 

 themselves to the experience of the school- 

 master. The mountain will never come to 

 Mahomet. To compel schools to differen- 

 tiate early a small and select and expensive 

 class for entrance to the universities is un- 

 fair both to school and to the university, 

 and seriously checks the diffusion of higher 

 education. To deny the privilege of breath- 

 ing the university atmosphere to any prod- 

 uct of a good secondary school involves 

 such a narrow conception of education that 

 one dislikes to associate it with the univer- 

 sity. It has always seemed an anomaly 

 that universities are inclined to rate them- 

 selves more upon the basis of their raw 

 material than their finished product. A 

 fine-meshed screen is set up at the begin- 

 ning of the university career, when it would 

 seem far more logical to set it up at the 

 other end. This matter of entrance has 

 much to do with the opportunity given to 

 science to express itself in education. If its 

 most promising and best trained material 

 is turned back or handicapped when at- 

 tempting to enter the university, a certain 

 kind of educational theory may command 

 the result, but it is a blockade against the 

 general progress of education, in so far as 

 it cuts off a great agency from operating 

 upon the legitimate material. 



A statement summarizing the claims set 

 forth in this paper may be formulated as 

 follows : The introduction of science among 

 the subjects used in education has revolu- 

 tionized the methods of teaching, and all 

 subjects have felt the impulse of a new 

 life ; it has developed the scientific spirit, 

 which prompts to investigation, which de- 

 mands that belief shall rest upon a foun- 

 dation of adequate demonstration, which 

 recognizes that the sphere of influence sur- 



rounding facts may be speedily traversed 

 and that everything beyond is as uncertain 

 as if there were no facts ; it has introduced 

 a training peculiar to itself, in that it teaches 

 the attitude of self-elimination, an attitude 

 necessary in order to reach ultimate truth, 

 and thus supplements and steadies the other 

 half of life, which is to appreciate. To ob- 

 tain these results, there must be teachers 

 who can teach, whose background and source 

 of supply is the investigator. Moreover, the 

 results are immensely desirable, inasmuch 

 as they do not interfere with anything that 

 is fine and uplifting in the old education, 

 but simply mean that the possibilities of 

 high attainment and high usefulness are 

 open to a far greater number. 



John M. Coultee. 



THE ZEE3IAN EFFECT. 



Early in the year 1897 a paper was pub- 

 lished in several journals by Dr. P. Zee- 

 man, describing a series of experiments to 

 determine the effect of magnetism upon the 

 spectrum of a source of light placed in the 

 magnetic field . The electromagnetic theory 

 of light indicated in a general way that 

 there would probably be some effect, and 

 several investigators had already sought 

 for it without success. The most note- 

 worthy of these was Faraday, who made it 

 the object of one of his last researches, and 

 in this country Rowland made an exami- 

 nation with a Eutherford grating, before 

 he had himself begun to rule the more per- 

 fect gratings of the present day. Zeeman 

 himself had made an earlier unsuccessful 

 attempt, and Fievez really observed what 

 may have been the same phenomenon 

 which Zeeman finally discovered, but he 

 failed to understand its true character. 



With the aid of a strong magnet and 

 better spectroscopic apparatus than any of 

 his predecessors had used, Zeeman attacked 

 the problem the second time with success. 

 He placed a Bunsen fiame containing com- 



