208 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 815 



" enormous " has shrunk to a negative quan- 

 tity. An outline or explanation of his views 

 on this important and complex question would 

 have profited our understanding of his conver- 

 sion, but he does not give them. Two incon- 

 siderable items of college gossip are mentioned, 

 but we can not believe that they form the basis 

 for so radical a change of heart on so broad 

 a question. 



One of these items is the rumor that Colum- 

 bia University is about to establish a course 

 in optometry. The reviewer himself does not 

 think it " possible that so treacherous a blow 

 would be struck at its medical department by 

 the university." There is no occasion to find 

 fault with this hopeful opinion which is wholly 

 in accord with the facts, and controversy is 

 impossible where agreement is complete. It 

 may be remarked, however, that whether the 

 university may or may not have done good to 

 the medical school, the connection with the 

 medical school (if the reviewer's reasoning be 

 correct) has in fact kept out quackery which 

 might otherwise have entered the university. 

 This is a reason for the connection which had 

 not occurred to Mr. Flexner, and the credit 

 for it should be given to the editor of the New 

 Yorh State Journal of Medicine. 



The second item of the reviewer is that the 

 presidents of the universities of three medical 

 schools were appealed to for help in last win- 

 ter's battle with the anti-vivisectionists, and 

 refused because they feared to lose contribu- 

 tions from " persons of large wealth." The 

 implied argument that, in general, managers 

 of proprietary and fee-dividing institutions, or 

 even of separately endowed schools, are less in 

 need of money than universities, and therefore 

 more likely to be defiant of ignorant public 

 opinion, deserves no serious consideration. 

 The instance with which the writer attempts 

 to support it rests upon a double innuendo : 

 the innuendo of fact, that a duty rested upon 

 the three presidents to make " personal appear- 

 ance upon the platform " and that none of 

 them appeared, is in both respects erroneous; 

 the innuendo of motive, that the attitude to- 

 wards the question of Dr. Butler, Dr. Schur- 

 man and Chancellor McCracken was controlled 



by their timid venality, may be left for them 

 to answer — if there be anything in it worth 

 answering. 



Reviews of this character are to be expected. 

 The instinct of conservatism — contentment 

 with what is familiar — begets tradition; the 

 break-up of tradition goes counter to this 

 natural tendency of the mind, and often gives 

 pain. The reformer is disliked for giving 

 pain, and found guilty of " innovation," " ar- 

 rogance " and " self-sufiiciency." Even the 

 most intelligent and profound study of condi- 

 tions does not absolve him from this personal 

 attack; such study rather intensifies it, for 

 the more penetrating his examination of the 

 facts, and the more unanswerable his conclu- 

 sions, the less there is to be said about them 

 and prejudice has the more to confine itself to 

 indefinite personalities. 



The epithets that are certain to be directed 

 against Mr. Flexner need not, therefore, chafe 

 him. If medical education have in it germs 

 of progress, it will go forward along the lines 

 he indicates. The best schools wiU adopt 

 them ; some of the inferior schools will change 

 more slowly; others will linger and die. Im- 

 perfectly and unevenly as usual, with imper- 

 ceptible gradations between the apparent 

 stages, and against sincere and insincere 

 opposition, progress will come. 



John Howland, M.T>. 

 49 East 53d Stbeet, 

 New Yobk 



QUOTATIONS 



THE NEW COLLEGE IN THE WEST 



That a new college, however well endowed, 

 is about to be added to the great array of 

 colleges and universities now existing in the 

 country, would not, of itself, be matter for 

 special notice outside the section immediately 

 affected. But the statements that have been 

 made about the plans and purposes of Reed 

 College, the institution to be opened a year 

 hence at Portland, Ore., are of a character 

 to attract great interest, especially when the 

 nature and value of college education are the 

 subject of such active discussion and contro- 

 versy. There are at least two points of great 



