June 3, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



853 



advancement of these exceptional students, 

 who are to be intellectual leaders in after 

 life, that the university may reasonably be 

 asked to extend special consideration and 

 assistance during the continuance of their 

 graduate studies. 



This would seem to be the highest func- 

 tion of the imiversity, not only because it 

 encourages her best students to strive to 

 attain the higher walks of intellectual life, 

 but because in the process of discovering 

 the man or woman of exceptional ability 

 all her sons and daughters are encouraged 

 to advance to the highest plane their men- 

 tal endowments permit them to reach. 



The place for research work in the uni- 

 versity is, then, at the close of the courses 

 of study pursued in her sexeral colleges; 

 that is, in the graduate school, ' to which 

 only those students who have successfully 

 passed their final college examinations and 

 received the bachelor's degree are admit- 

 ted. The graduate school might well be 

 named and made in fact the school of re- 

 search. Without such a school a group of 

 colleges should not be classed as a univer- 

 sity. As expressed by Hon. Seth Low, in 

 an article on 'Higher Education in the 

 United States,' published in the Educa- 

 tional Review, 'The work of the college is 

 ±0 teach that which is already known— the 

 work of the university is, in addition to 

 this, to enquire, to ascertain what lies be- 

 yond the line that marks the limit of the 

 known.' In the school of research, the 

 leading idea being the development of orig- 

 inality, it is evident that the professors 

 should be chosen from the ranks of those 

 who have won distinction on account of 

 their original contributions to the branch 

 of knowledge in which they presume to 

 serve as guides. In the school of research, 

 also, professor and student should be co- 

 workers and mutually assist each other. 

 Prom such comradeship, that intangible 

 something which is transmitted from per- 



son to person by association and contact, 

 but can not be written or spoken — we may 

 term it inspiration, or personal magnetism, 

 or perhaps the radium of the soul — is ac- 

 quired by the student in a greater degree 

 than at any previous time in his life after 

 leaving the caressing arms of his mother. 

 In the school of research professor and 

 student should have the time and facilities 

 their work demands. From such schools, 

 as may reasonably be expected, will come 

 in the future the best trained men and 

 women and the greatest contributions to 

 human knowledge. 



Seemingly, all college-bred men must 

 recognize the demands of higher education, 

 every captain of industry appreciate the 

 commercial benefits flowing from an in- 

 crease in knowledge, and every citizen see 

 that the search for truth is the best method 

 of enhancing morality and integrity and 

 of elevating the human race. The interests 

 of all branches of society are thus prima- 

 rily centered on research. There is a de- 

 mand that progress be made and that the 

 utmost attainable bounds of the knowable 

 be reached. 



Demands of men trained in the law, in 

 medicine, in engineering, etc., have led the 

 trustees and regents of universities to es- 

 tablish and maintain professional schools, 

 and not only the number of men entering 

 the learned professions, but their efficiency, 

 has been increased thereby. As I have en- 

 deavored to make clear, there is also a de- 

 mand which is urgent and pressing, for 

 men who can carry on research work in 

 pure science, and who are qualified to dis- 

 cover new facts, new laws and new forces 

 to be utilized in industry. This demand 

 also deserves to be met by our state uni- 

 versities, in order that the best possible 

 returns may be made to the citizens of a 

 'state who, by taxing themselves, support 

 such institutions. While the direct eco- 

 nomic returns to be expected from the es- 



