732 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 571. 



Stanford, Princeton, Indiana, Virginia and 

 Johns Hopkins. It is to be hoped that 

 none of the universities included in the 

 table is entering into competition with its 

 fellows for mere numbers, and I trust that 

 this article will not be interpreted by the 

 reader as desiring in any way to lay stress 

 upon the factor of numbers as the most 

 important item in the development of a 

 higher institution of learning. Neverthe- 

 less, the figures reflect certain important 

 features of the manner of expansion of 

 prominent American universities, and 

 viewed from this standpoint, they are no 

 doubt of value. 



Examining the different faculties, we are 

 struck at once by the continued decrease in 

 attendance at the medical schools through- 

 out the country, a loss that can not be 

 explained by increased admission require- 

 ments alone. Unquestionably the reasons 

 stated in a previous article must also be 

 taken into consideration.- Numerous re- 

 ports indicate that in France especially 

 the supply of physicians is far in ex- 

 cess of the demand. The only increase 

 of note at any of' the medical schools 

 enumerated in the table is at that of the 

 University of Pennsylvania, where the 

 faculty of medicine shows a gain of 33 

 students, making the Pennsylvania med- 

 ical school the largest in the list, Illinois 

 being second. Northwestern third and Co- 

 lumbia fourth. One half of the law 

 schools show a gain, whereas the other half 

 have experienced a loss in attendance. 

 The law school of the University of Mich- 

 igan is by far the largest of those mentioned 

 in the table, Harvard still being second, 

 Minnesota third and Pennsylvania fourth. 

 Columbia and Yale are apparently equal 

 in size, but the Columbia figures do not 

 include 24 college seniors, which would 



^ Cf. Science, N. S., Vol. XVIII., No. 467, De- 

 cember 11, 1903, p. 741. 



bring its total law registration to 301. The 

 scientific schools continue to increase all 

 along the line. At Princeton the number 

 of scientific students is practically equal to 

 the number of academic students, while 

 only three years ago there were 264 more 

 academic than scientific students. At Yale, 

 too, the number of scientific students is in- 

 creasing rapidly, and the difference be- 

 tween the number of academic and scien- 

 tific students has been reduced from 445 

 to 295 during the past three years. At the 

 same time, it should be pointed out that 

 the increase in the scientific schools is not 

 quite as marked in a number of institutions 

 as it has been in previous years, yet if the 

 present rate of increase should continue, 

 the time will no doubt come when the 

 supply of students equipped for tech- 

 nological work will exceed the legitimate 

 demand. The Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology shows a falling off in enrol- 

 ment this year compared with the cor- 

 responding date last year. The statement 

 occasionally made, sometimes more in jest 

 than in earnest — especially in connection 

 with the coeducational institutions in the 

 middle west — that the large increase in the 

 number of women students in the academic 

 department is causing men to flock to the 

 scientiflc schools in these institutions, is no 

 doubt founded upon fact in more than one 

 instance. Cornell still leads in the number 

 of scientific students, Michigan being sec- 

 ond, Yale third and Illinois fourth, and 

 Harvard continues to have the largest 

 academic enrolment. Its summer session 

 was also the largest last year (leaving 

 Chicago out of consideration) , Columbia's 

 being second, California's third and Indi- 

 ana's fourth. The Columbia figures are 

 exclusive of the scientific students regis- 

 tered for summer work in surveying, 

 geodesy, etc., away from the university. 

 Columbia, with an enrolment of 804 stu- 



