NOVEMBEE 21, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



819 



which has been raised is to recognize 

 frankly that the privilege of doing a year 

 of professional work as a part of the A.B. 

 course, which juniors and seniors now en- 

 joy, is a favor extended to candidates who 

 study at a university six or seven years, 

 and that there is no reason for shortening 

 the course of candidates whose studies 

 cease on the receipt of the A.B. degree. 



Another question, which has not indeed 

 been formally discussed, but which has 

 occasionally been mooted, is the advisability 

 of requiring the A.B. degree (or its equiva- 

 lent) for admission to the professional and 

 technical courses. It seems safe to say 

 that Cornell University is not likely soon 

 to adopt that policy. If a youth desires 

 to be a lawyer, engineer, physician or 

 architect, there is no good reason why he 

 should be compelled to study other subjects 

 for four years as a condition of entering 

 upon his professional course. And there 

 is less reason to-day, when the A.B. course 

 has everywhere been made largely, and in 

 some institutions wholly, elective, than 

 might have been imagined a generation 

 ago when the prescribed classical course 

 was deemed the one and indispensable 

 means of liberal culture and mental train- 

 ing, which also fitted and qiialified the 

 candidate to undertake professional study. 

 'At Cornell University, at any rate, the es- 

 tablished policy is to admit students to 

 any coiirse who are able to pass the exam- 

 inations qualifying them to pursue that 

 course. And such preliminary tests, it is 

 generally conceded by the members of the 

 professions concerned, do not exceed the 

 requirements for graduation at the best 

 high schools. The age of high school grad- 

 uates is also suitable. And, finally, Cor- 

 nell University could not, without sur- 

 rendering the democratic spirit in which 

 it was conceived and by which it has always 

 heen inspired, establish conditions of ad- 

 mission to its courses of study which would 



close its doors to the masses of the people 

 and leave them open only to those who had 

 time and money enough to study for a 

 period of six or seven years after gradu- 

 ating at high schools. Nevertheless, the 

 members of the professional faculties are 

 fully aware of the advantages of superior 

 education and culture to its possessor, and, 

 other things being equal, they know it con- 

 duces to professional success. Accord- 

 ingly, students whose age, means and cir- 

 cumstances justify such a plan are advised 

 to study both for the A.B. and the profes- 

 sional degree. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Development and Evolution. By Professou 

 James Mark Baldwin. New York, The 

 Macmillan Co. Pp. 395. $2.60. 

 Although biologists all agree as to the gen- 

 eral truth of the theory of descent, disagree- 

 ment is still rife as to the method of descent 

 of the species. Those who have been inter- 

 ested in these problems in recent years have 

 been divided into two camps, agreeing as to 

 the general facts but differing in their views as 

 to the forces by which the evolution of animals 

 has been brought about. One school has held 

 a modified view of the Lamarckian theory, 

 assuming that the directive force in evolution 

 has been the environment which produces di- 

 rect modifications in the individual, to be sub- 

 sequently inherited. The second school has 

 adopted an ultra-Darwinian position, denying 

 that the modifications produced by the en- 

 vironment can be inherited, and insisting that 

 acquired characters can play no part in evolu- 

 tion. According to this school, evolution has 

 been due to the natural selection of congenital 

 variations. Both of these schools have labored 

 under serious disadvantages. The neo-La- 

 marckian school is quite unable to obtain any 

 clear evidence that acquired characters are 

 transmitted by heredity, and thus their funda- 

 mental datum is without demonstration. On 

 the other hand, the neo-Darwinian school has 

 labored under disadvantages of a different 

 nature. No one questions the cogency of con- 

 genital variations or the importance of natural 



