1004 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 391. 



extent of this work may be formed from 

 the number of universities in Germany, 

 21 in all, and from the fact that the aggre- 

 gate number of matriculated students ex- 

 ceeds 12,000, in addition to non-matricu- 

 lated students, who are also numbered by 

 thousands, while the philosophical faculty 

 at Berlin and Leipzig in 1901-2 numbered, 

 respectively, 207 and 120. To the 21 uni- 

 versities mentioned should be added the 

 nine technische Hochschulen which have 

 now the right to confer the doctor's degree 

 in the applied sciences. 



It is impossible to exaggerate the en- 

 thusiasm which prevails among both pro- 

 fessors and students in their common 

 object, and this enthusiasm is increased 

 by legitimate emulation. The reputation 

 of a university depends upon the progress 

 made by its professors, the reputation of a 

 professor upon the progress made in his 

 department. Hence a student may be 

 attracted from one university to another — 

 which is allowable under the system — may 

 choose to follow the lectures of the pro- 

 fessor, ordinary or extraordinary, or even 

 those of the privat-docent in his own par- 

 ticular line of work. Under such a system 

 and under such stimulating conditions it is 

 evident that both professors and students 

 mtist take their work seriously, with the 

 result that the combined effort of a vast 

 number of the best minds in the country 

 is concentrated on the advancement of all 

 the principal branches of knowledge. 

 With regard to the research work done by 

 the student and without which the degree 

 of Ph.D. is not conferred, it may be objected 

 that much of it is not important and some- 

 times very trivial. It may be said, however, 

 that it must all stand the test of publica- 

 tion after being approved by the professor, 

 so that its value may at once be estimated 

 by the learned world, and the scholastic 

 standing of professor and student rated 

 accordingly. 



The place and importance of research 

 in the German system is further indicated 

 by the fact that even teachers in the gym- 

 nasiiun devote themselves to such work, 

 their papers being published in the annual 

 reports of their institutions. With such 

 respect is the ability for research regarded 

 that the publication of a paper of this kind 

 may lead directly to a professorship in the 

 university, as was the case, for instance, 

 in the appointment of Weierstrass, the cele- 

 brated mathematician. 



Let us now turn our attention for a 

 few moments to the British university sys- 

 tem. An extended description is unneces- 

 sary, since we are all familiar with the 

 working of British universities themselves, 

 or with the Canadian or American devel- 

 opment of the original British type. 

 Hence it may suffice if I contrast briefly 

 the British and German systems in some 

 of their essential features. 



In the organization of the German uni- 

 versity research has been shown to be a 

 fundamental principle; in the British 

 imiversity it is as yet incidental or of 

 sporadic manifestation. I do not of course 

 ignore the very important contributions 

 which have been made by British scholars 

 to the advancement of learning, but it is 

 worthy of note that the credit for their 

 splendid achievements is rather due to the 

 individuals themselves than to the vmiver- 

 sities with which many of them were con- 

 nected. The British university is not 

 primarily an institution for research. In 

 its function of providing the higher grades 

 of a liberal education the proper compari- 

 son is with the upper classes of the German 

 gymnasium, not with the German univer- 

 sity proper. True, we find in some of the 

 British universities a specialization in 

 certain subjects, e. g., in honor classics 

 and mathematics at Oxford and Cambridge 

 leading to higher work than that attempted 

 in the gymnasium; but however advanced 



