628 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 568. 



function, within certain limits, I believe the 

 state university combined with the normal 

 schools can perform. The department of 

 education in the state university organizing 

 the resources of the state university for 

 this particular purpose may bring to bear 

 upon the educational problems and upon 

 the educational needs of the state, an expert 

 opinion which it is not possible to find in 

 any other department of the state admin- 

 istration. 



This function, it may be said, is not per- 

 formed by the university in its capacity as 

 a civil service academy, preparing teachers 

 for the educational service of the state. It 

 is larger and wider than this. It is a 

 recognition of the university as one of the 

 organs created by the state for determin- 

 ing, within certain limits, the policy of the 

 state in the great field of education. 



And thus I might proceed with a sum- 

 mary of other great things that are waiting 

 for the state university if it only knows 

 the day of its visitation ; if it only measures 

 itself up to its opportunities; if it only 

 performs faithfully and simply the duties 

 which the state thrusts upon it. 



But time presses and I must draw these 

 considerations to a close. I have left un- 

 touched many things you may have ex- 

 pected me to discuss, not because I do not 

 consider them as important, but either 

 because I regard them as so fundamental 

 that we should all agree upon them or be- 

 cause the limitation of time does not per- 

 mit even their mention. You will have 

 gathered from what I have said my con- 

 ception in general of the function and 

 future of the state university. 



It may be defined in brief. as supplemen- 

 tary to the great system of higher education 

 which private beneficence and church ac- 

 tivity have reared, and it is to be hoped 

 will continue to rear. It is corrective 

 rather than directive; it is cooperative 

 rather than monopolistic ; it is adapted for 



leadership in certain departments, but must 

 look to the non-state institution for leader- 

 ship in others. It should be as universal 

 as the American democracy— as broad, as 

 liberal, as sympathetic, as comprehensive — 

 ready to take up into itself all the educa- 

 tional forces of the state, giving recognition 

 for good work wherever done, and unify- 

 ing, tying together all the multiform 

 strands of educational activity into one 

 great cable whose future strength no man 

 may measure. 



Edmund Janes James. 

 University of Illinois. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



Structural and Field Geology, for Students 

 in Pure and Applied Science. By James 

 Geikie, LL.D., D.C.L., F.E.S., etc., Murchi- 

 son Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in 

 the University of Edinburgh, formerly of H. 

 M. Geological Survey, author of ' The Great 

 Ice Age/ ' Prehistoric Europe,' ' Earth 

 Sculpture/ etc. New York, D. Van Nos- 

 trand Company. 1905. 



This is a well-made and attractive volume 

 of just the maximum size which long experi- 

 ence has shown to be the largest permissible 

 for a handbook. It is of exactly the same 

 dimensions as the first volume of Chamber- 

 lin and Salisbury, and although by the choice 

 of a thinner paper the American book numbers 

 two hundred more pages, it contains so many 

 more figures that the text of the two is of 

 about the same length. 



Although the two books take opposite points 

 of view, the one describing structures with 

 little explanation, the other discussing proc- 

 esses with brief illustration, it is interesting 

 to compare them. The Scotch book is as con- 

 servative as Edinburgh, the American as 

 radical as Chicago. The former proceeds 

 along the ancient ways with a leisurely full- 

 ness that is very attractive to a veteran, and 

 recalls the time when he devoured Jukes or 

 Nauman. The rock-forming minerals are de- 

 scribed in detail, and the rocks with even 

 greater fullness. The word petrography, with ^ 



