1 86 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 345 



•to the putting away of those petty restrictions which were formerly 

 a constant menace, and erected an impassable barrier between the 

 teacher and the taught. We no longer, like the Irishman, stand 

 aloof with a chip on the shoulder, and dare any of the boys to 

 knock it off; but we invite confidence, and receive it, and our re- 

 lations with the students is not that of taskmaster and toiler, but 

 that of guide and friend. Had our worthy president done no more 

 than break down that old middle wall of partition, he would for 

 this great feature of his administration alone deserve the everlast- 

 ing gratitude of this community. And let me entreat you, my 

 brethren, not to allow any one to reinstate this wall, or even to lay 

 the first brick in its reconstruction. 



Most of our sister institutions are struggling with hobbledehoydom 

 still. Only a few day ago, one of our distinguished graduates, and 

 a highly valued professor in another New England college, said to 

 me : " Cambridge men do not appreciate the advantages they have 

 gained by setting their students free from petty restraints. Treat 

 men as boys and they will act as boys. With us the boyishness 

 ■first breaks out in the chapel, and then extends to all the class- 

 rooms. It belittles all our work, and dampens all our enthusiasm." 

 My friends, in an institution of learning like this, you cannot prize 

 too highly the ennobling virtue of enthusiasm. To awaken it is to 

 make the boy a man. To fail to arouse it, at least in something, 

 is to miss the great end of education. But such virtue cannot be 

 •had without cost. Enthusiasm implies of necessity freedom ; and 

 who in this New England, after a century's experience, is not will- 

 ing to incur the risk and pay the cost which freedom entails ? 



Finally, brethren, while noble character is the crowning grace of 

 education, scholarship is the brightest jewel in this crown ; and 

 you may well ask. Has learning kept pace with privilege ? But in 

 attempting to answer this question I find myself in the dilemma of 

 the learned commentator who had devoted a chapter to the snakes 

 of Iceland. He could find no snakes, lahd I can find no comparison. 

 The scholarship of to-day rests on a level so much higher than 

 that of twenty-five years ago, that therfe is no common measure. I 

 will confine myself to my own department, of which I have ac- 

 curate knowledge, and of which I may speak unreservedly, because 

 it has so broadened out that only a small part of the instruction 

 now devolves on the director. Besides the very large class, before 

 referred to, which attended the elementary lectures, there were 

 actually working in the chemical laboratory last year more students 

 than were comprised in the whole college of my day, and the 

 contributions to chemical science which will soon be published, 

 as the result of the year's work of students as well as of 

 teachers, will fill more than one half of the annual volume 

 of our American academy. A recent writer in the Atlantic 

 Monthly, discussing " Why our Students go to Europe," pays us 

 what he evidently regards as a high compliment in saying, " Now 

 the chemical course at Harvard equals that in most German 

 universities." Our own students who have gone from the labora- 

 tory to study abroad will tell you, as they have told me repeatedly, 

 that, whatever advantages may be gained by association with men 

 •of special attainments, there is no University in Germany, or else- 

 where, at which the instruction is at once so broad, so full, and so 

 thorough as at home. How does this compare with recitations 

 from " Stockhardt's Chemistry," illustrated by popular lectures.' 



Fellow alumni, our attention has been so often and so loudly 

 ■called of late to the shady side of college life, that, whatever opin- 

 ions you may have formed, I am sure you will not blame me for 

 inviting you on Commencement day to bask for a few minutes in 

 its sunshine. At such a time we can only meet assertion with as- 

 sertion ; but I have spoken solely of what I do know, and if any 

 one is not convinced I invite him, following the example of- the 

 anxious mother, to come and dwell among us and partake of our 

 Ufe. Obviously I am no pessimist, but also I am no optimist. The 

 members of this great family are all frail human souls. Evil is 

 ever present with us, as it was with our fathers and will be with 

 our children. We cannot escape the curse. But we have faith in 

 truth and right, and will fight the good fight to the end. 



" O yet we trust that somehow good 

 Will be the final goal of ill. 

 To pangs of nature, sins of will, 

 Defects of doubt, and taints of blood." 



We all boast the same intellectual parentage. You for the most 

 part have gone out into the world and found a career elsewhere. I 

 am one of the few who have always stayed by the homestead since 

 I was first received into the brotherhood with the Class of 1848. 

 For nearly half a century I have known the dear old Mother as 

 well as a devoted son possibly could ; and let me assure my broth- 

 ers who have come home to keep this feast, that during her long 

 life our Alma Mater was never so worthy of our admiration and 

 veneration, of our love and devotion, as she is this day. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



A Manual of Machine Construction, for Engineers, Draughts- 

 men, and Mechanics. By JOHN RICHARDS. Philadelphia, 

 Lippincott. $5. 



An experience in constructive engineering extending over a pe- 

 riod of thirty-five years, in both Europe and America, has admi- 

 rably qualified Mr. Richards for the task of preparing this volume. 

 That the task is well done, will not be doubted by those acquainted 

 with his previous work in the same line, which includes a number 

 of treatises on various mechanical subjects. 



The book is unique in more than one respect. It is intended to 

 meet the every-day wants of the practical man, in draughting-room 

 or work-shop, and is consequently more a work of direct applica- 

 tion than of theoretical instruction. While concise, as such a book 

 must necessarily be, it nevertheless touches with sufficient detail 

 on many minute points concerning which very little has heretofore 

 been accessible in print. The author states that the preparation 

 of the work was suggested many years ago by the inconvenience 

 of common references such as are required in usual machine prac- 

 tice, and by a belief that some more simple form, adapted directly 

 to use, and confined to those things most commonly dealt with, 

 would be of value. Being made up mainly from the personal ex- 

 perience of the author, reproducing and classifying work already 

 constructed, the book presents in a convenient form material gath- 

 ered in the course of a long and diversified experience, the exact 

 rules formulated in accordance with theoretical considerations be- 

 ing modified to suit the limitations and exigencies of actual prac- 

 tice. 



A peculiar feature of the book is its make-up, being bound so 

 that it opens at the end of the page instead of at the side, after the 

 manner of a reporter's note-book, or legal-cap paper ; and each 

 alternate page is left blank, for convenience in reference and also 

 to receive notes and original matter. The page titles and numbers 

 are placed at the bottom of the page to facilitate convenience in 

 reference. 



The volume is divided into sections on machine design, the 

 transmission of power, steam machinery, hydraulics, and processes 

 and properties, followed by a section devoted to tables and memo- 

 randa of weights and measures ; standards for screws, bolts, and 

 nuts ; sizes of wood and machine screws ; circumferences and areas 

 of circles ; square and cube roots, etc. To engineers and draughts- 

 men engaged in machine design or construction, this book will 

 prove of special value. 



Monopolies and the People. By Charles Whiting Baker. 

 New York. Putnam. 12°. $1.25. 

 This work is an attempt to solve the problems presented by the 

 new form and organization of industry. The author is impressed, 

 as most persons are, by the rapid growth of " trusts " and other 

 combinations of a monopolistic character, and by the evils they 

 sometimes produce ; and he here undertakes to furnish a remedy for 

 those evils. He writes in a judicial tone and with an evident de- 

 sire to be fair to all parties. He gives an account of the origin and 

 growth of the combinations known as " trusts," with other chap- 

 ters on monopolies in minerals and transportation, placing also the 

 labor unions in the general class of monopolies. He regards them 

 all as natural outgrowths of existing industrial conditions, and 

 while he acknowledges that they are in some respects beneficial, he 

 is especially impressed with the abuses that attend them. So far 

 his readers will probably agree .with him ; but when he comes to 

 state the remedies for the evils he speaks of, we, at least, are 

 obliged to dissent. He holds that the true remedy for monopoly is 



