SCIENCE 



Friday, August 12, 1910 

 contents 



The Government of American Universities: 

 Peofessoe J. E. Ceeiqhton 193 



Beport of the Perma)ient Commission of the 

 International Seismological Association: 

 Otto Ivlotz 199 



The Graduate School of Agriculture 200 



Scientific Notes and News 201 



University and Educational News 204 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



A Suggestion as to the Care of Types: Peo- 

 fessoe T. D. A. CocKEEELL. Medical Edu- 

 cation: Db. John Howland 205 



Quotations : — • 



The New College in the West 208 



Scientific Books: — 

 Needham's General Biology: Peofessoe S. 

 J. Holhes. Winterstein's Eandbuch der 

 Vergleichenden Physiologic : Peofessoe La- 

 fayette B. Mendel, husk's Elements of 

 the Science of Nutrition: W. D. Bigelow. . 210 



Report on New Zealand Sand Dunes : Chables 

 S. ElDGWAT 214 



special Articles: — 



On the Conservation of Eailstones and the 

 Investigation of their Uicrostructure : Peo- 

 fessoe Boeis Weinbebg. a Speculation in 

 Crystallography : J. E. Todd 214 



The Twenty-second Annual Meeting of the 

 Geological Society of America : Db. Edmund 

 Utis Hovet 218 



MSS. intended for publication and boots, etc., intended for 

 review should be se2t to the Editor oi Sciekce, Garrison-on- 

 Httdaon. N. Y. 



TEE GOVERNMENT OF AMERICAN 

 UNIVERSITIES 

 There are perhaps some advantages in 

 discussing the question of university gov- 

 ernment during the summer vacation, when 

 partial detachment from professional duties 

 makes possible a clearer perspective than 

 when one is in the thick of the work. The 

 problem is both difficult and urgent, and 

 in approaching it one can not do better 

 than remind oneself of the need of patience 

 and good feeling in its consideration. 

 Above all, it should be emphasized, as has 

 already been done by Professor Jastrow in 

 a recent number of Science, that the at- 

 tack is not directed against individuals, but 

 against a system. That system may be 

 described as one of personal government, 

 as opposed to government by consent or 

 the self-government of a freely acting com- 

 munity. The objections against this sys- 

 tem are directed not merely against the 

 exercise of irresponsible power by college 

 presidents, but against all claims on the 

 part of any member of the university body 

 to subject another to his personal will. 



The urgent character of the problem, 

 and the consequent significance attaching 

 to the present agitation for reform in uni- 

 versity government, is due to the fact that 

 ■ the very idea of a university as the home 

 of independent scholars has been obscured 

 by the present system. If it were true 

 that only a few supersensitive individuals 

 among university teachers were affected 

 in their personal feeling by the power 

 now exercised by presidents and other 

 university administrative oiScers, the ques- 

 tion would have little significance. But 



