August 26, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



259 



speaking, two sorts of men in the personnel 

 of every faculty, and while every success- 

 ful professor must be an enthusiastic stu- 

 dent and an inspiring teacher, some are 

 mainly erudite, while others are productive 

 of discoveries in science. While the needs 

 of these two classes of men are mainly in 

 accord, in some important respects they are 

 at variance. 



From the nature of the case, the merely 

 erudite must greatly outnumber those 

 whose genius is directed with success to- 

 ward discovery, and thus the needs of the 

 teacher have been well provided for, 

 whereas the investigator finds his task ren- 

 dered harder through the imposition of 

 duties which, while precious in the oppor- 

 tunity they afford to the teacher are of a 

 character to interfere with that freedom of 

 action which is so essential to productive 

 work in science or in art. 



The teacher's happiest opportunity is in 

 meeting students of the primary classes. 

 It is also well for him to teach in the vaca- 

 tion school in order that his store of knowl- 

 edge may become accessible to the many; 

 but an atmosphere in which these ideals 

 predominate to the exclusion of other aims 

 is not favorable to the welfare of the pro- 

 ductive student, for his disposition pecul- 

 iarly befits him to perfect the training of 

 the gifted few rather than to reiterate old 

 truths for the enlightenment of the many. 

 The American college has been justly so- 

 licitous for the welfare of the average stu- 

 dent, but the requirements of the most 

 gifted and original are in some measure 

 sacrificed, and it is not due to accident that 

 our colleges have not yet developed a man 

 of science of the highest European type. 

 For example, the extraordinary increase in 

 the number of summer schools maintained 

 by our universities has been adverse to the 

 welfare of the investigator, forcing him as 

 it does to the time-consuming task of pri- 



mary teaching during a period when he 

 should be most free to devote his attention 

 to research. Owing to the paucity of their 

 salaries, labor in summer schools is prac- 

 tically forced upon the young instructors, 

 and this factor has become so serious a one 

 that it is now the most pernicious single 

 influence tending to defeat the development 

 of the research spirit in the teaching force 

 of our universities, stultifying as it does 

 many a promising young man at the begin- 

 ning of his career in science. 



It is essential for the welfare of research 

 within our universities that graduate 

 schools shall maintain as an ideal the fos- 

 tering of productive scholarship, rather 

 than the mere training of college teachers, 

 and the holders of professorships in our 

 graduate schools should above all be suc- 

 cessful investigators, for they will then be 

 inspiring teachers. 



Our universities have often been de- 

 terred from the most effective encourage- 

 ment of research or have entered only half- 

 heartedly into it, owing to the large expense 

 involved, and thus many of our graduate 

 schools are still mainly training institutions 

 for college and high-school teachers. 



In 1880 our colleges were housed in 

 simple brick structures, whereas to-day 

 they are domiciled in palaces. This ma- 

 terial change has necessarily been dispro- 

 portionate to their intellectual development 

 dviring the same period, and those who have 

 the welfare of the colleges at heart have 

 had it brought forcefully to their attention 

 that grand buildings and beautiful lawns 

 may be necessary and are certainly de- 

 sirable, but a university is made by a fac- 

 ulty of earnest and eminent men. Fair, 

 intelligent, generous treatment their cause 

 demands, for their very unselfish high- 

 mindedness renders them peculiarly liable 

 to be the prey of narrow exploiters of the 

 mere commercial side of education. 



