Aphix 26, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



645 



it to teach thoroughly only the principles 

 of his subject and to devote some of his 

 energies to the advancement of knowledge 

 in his chosen field. And this suggests a 

 consideration of the effects of summer 

 sessions, now so much in vogue, upon pro- 

 ductive activities. I do not feel justified 

 in giving at present an ex cathedra pro- 

 nouncement upon the merits of summer 

 sessions; they seem to make for both good 

 and ill; but whether the benefits derived 

 from them compensate for their ill-effects 

 in other lines remains for the future to 

 determine. If they can be conducted on 

 lines which will suppress an imminent 

 danger of superficiality and which will 

 not interfere with the investigational ac- 

 tivities of members of the university staff, 

 by demanding that men who have already 

 spent nine months of the year principally 

 in class-room work shall devote to similar 

 work an additional period of six weeks or 

 more of the time they have for uninter- 

 rupted devotion to investigation, if these 

 dangers can be avoided the summer ses- 

 sion is justifiable; otherwise its influence 

 is pernicious. 



One of the allurements of the summer 

 session is the opportunity it affords for a 

 small addition to a diminutive income. 

 And in the necessity for this lies one of the 

 obstacles to greater scientific achievement 

 in the universities. The res angusta domi 

 do not conduce to that condition of equa- 

 nimity necessary for good scientific work 

 and many a promising investigator has 

 had his ambitions quenched and his mind 

 turned to the more pressing material neces- 

 sities of life by the lack of sufficient rec- 

 ompense for his work. This is a matter, 

 however, to which attention has frequently 

 been called of late and, it is a pleasure to 

 say, with some prospect of remedy. 



I have already pointed out as one of the , 

 causes for the position scientific studies 

 now hold in university education, the de- 



mand for men trained in scientific methods. 

 And, as is so often the case, the favoring 

 current carries with it seeds of danger to 

 true scientific progress. This danger is 

 the commercialization of the university, and 

 it is one which in this country, more than 

 in any other, needs careful watch and 

 ward. The university has been satirically 

 defined as a place where nothing useful 

 is taught and, taking the word useful in 

 its intended meaning, I hold that the defini- 

 tion, intended as a reproach is an honor. 

 What the university and university educa- 

 tion should stand for is not utilitarianism, 

 its function is not to turn out masters of 

 the technicalities of this or that profession, 

 but above all men with a sound training 

 in fundamental principles. That the uni- 

 versity should offer lectures and other 

 forms of instruction in the history and 

 theory of music or painting is right and 

 proper, but that it should turn out expert 

 pianists or finished artists is absurd. We 

 may even look with equanimity upon 

 courses in domestic science or on properly 

 conducted commercial courses, but that the 

 university should descend to the education 

 even of good cooks or successful drummers 

 is something horrible to contemplate. And 

 so with the sciences. Let the first care of 

 the university be to thoroughly educate 

 men in the principles of the sciences, and 

 worthy results will inevitably foUow, but 

 should the university become a technical 

 school progress will be retarded. I do not 

 mean to say that the practical application 

 of scientific principles should be absolutely 

 disregarded in the university; far from it. 

 For the argumentum ad rem is often the 

 most powerful means for pressing home a 

 scientific deduction. But what I do main- 

 tain is that it is the teaching of the prin- 

 ciples of pure science which underly prac- 

 tical application that should be the essen- 

 tial function of the university, its aim 

 should not be to turn out engineers, archi- 



