540 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 588. 



impaired and its conclusions discredited. 

 The experiment at Stanford University is 

 now in its second year, and, thus far, has 

 met with very general approval, at least 

 so far as the writer's knowledge goes. By 

 this plan, the initiative of the president is 

 sought to be preserved, but he is provided 

 with a board of counselors, representative 

 of the faculty, to advise him in the most 

 important of his administrative acts. This 

 influence can not amount to a veto unless 

 sustained by the trustees, while it all the 

 time cooperates with him by keeping him 

 in constant touch with representative fac- 

 ulty opinion which has been carefully con- 

 sidered and formulated. 



Certain purely administrative functions 

 are placed under the control of the presi- 

 dent rather than under the faculty. Such 

 are the maintenance of discipline, the con- 

 duct of athletic, social and literary student 

 activities, and public health. The presi- 

 dent appoints committees from the faculty 

 to assist him in these fiinctions and the 

 membership of these committees is also sub- 

 ject to the approval of the advisory board. 



Other committees dealing with strictly 

 academic questions are directly under the 

 control of the academic council and an- 

 swerable to the council. 



The Executive Committee of the council 

 is entrusted with much of the work which 

 consumes so much time and energy at fre- 

 quent and long-drawn-out faculty meetings 

 at many universities. It consists of the 

 president of the university, the vice-presi- 

 dent and the registrar, as ex-offi-clo mem- 

 bers, and ten other members, two from each 

 of the five department groups, elected by 

 the council, much as the members of the 

 advisory board are elected. The executive 

 committee appoints the other standing com- 

 mittees of the faculty and controls their 

 policy, subject to the approval of the 

 academic council, and subject to instruction 

 by the council. 



The teaching force of each department 

 of the university is organized as the De- 

 partment Faculty under the chairmanship 

 of an executive head appointed by the 

 president, with the approval of the ad- 

 visory board. The department faculty 

 conducts the internal affairs of the depart- 

 ment, subject to the control of the academic 

 council in such matters as involve relations 

 with other departments, and with the uni- 

 versity at large. 



The academic council thus controls 

 through its various committees and depart- 

 mental faculties the educational policy and 

 machinery of the university, the president 's 

 influence herein being conserved by his 

 position as presiding ofScer of the council 

 and of its executive committee. Speaking 

 generally the whole idea of the organiza- 

 tion is to commit the business of the uni- 

 versity in all its activities to the direction 

 of those who are most qualified experts, to 

 preserve the initiative and influence of the 

 trustees, president and faculty within their 

 respective spheres, to protect the rights 

 and privileges of all arms of the university 

 authority, and to insure, in so far as may 

 be, the interests of the whole university as 

 paramount to the interests of any one 

 factor. 



John Maxson Stillman. 



Stanfokd University. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Flashlights in the Jungle: A Record of 

 Hunting Adventures and of Studies in 

 Wild Life in Equatorial East Africa. By 

 C. G. Schillings. Translated by Frederic 

 WiiYTE, with an introduction by Sir H. H. 

 Johnston. Illustrated by 307 of the au- 

 thor's untouched photographs taken by day 

 and night. Pp. xxii + Y82. New York, 

 Doubleday, Page & Co. 1906. 

 Herr Schillings's work on the wilderness of 

 East Africa, called in its latest English edi- 

 tion 'Flashlights in the Jungle,' should in- 

 terest a wide class of readers, but in particular 



