698 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. A^OL. XXXII. No. 829 



with the aims and ideals of the faculty, 

 which, of course, constitute the supreme ob- 

 ject of the institution. If, by any kind of 

 reorganization this danger can be averted, 

 the reorganization should be cordially wel- 

 comed. A university whose president does 

 not embody and faithfully interpret the 

 spirit of the scholars and scientists who es- 

 sentially constitute the institution, is to all 

 intents and purposes without a head. It is 

 doubtful, however, whether any kind of 

 organization will save our universities 

 from occasional disasters of this sort. The 

 one remedy is cultivation by the faculty of 

 a sense of responsibility for the welfare 

 and advancement of the institution and a 

 readiness to advise on all matters directly 

 or indirectly connected with the essential 

 functions of the university of which they 

 are the constituted organs and guardians. 



But that is not all. In proportion as a 

 university advances to the highest forms of 

 its activity, it leaves behind the sphere of 

 organization and officialdom and is em- 

 bodied in the personality of its productive 

 scholars and scientists. A Kelvin, or a 

 Pasteur, or a Mommsen represents in his 

 field the whole university; his work is be- 

 yond the reach of officers of government 

 and administration; in his library or lab- 

 oratory, surrounded with the facilities 

 requisite for research, this, solitary spirit, 

 unvexed by rules and ordinances, broods 

 creatively over the mysteries of nature and 

 the life of man. The problems of govern- 

 ment and administration that harass our 

 universities in their caterpillar stage dis- 

 appear in the highest phase of their devel- 

 opment. At Cornell, for example, a well- 

 endowed graduate school and division of 

 research would know nothing of them. 



The number of persons who received in- 

 struction in the university in 1909-10 was 

 5,194, an increase of 335 over the total 

 attendance for the preceding year. And 



the number of regularly matriculated stu- 

 dents, which did not reach 2,000 till the 

 nineteenth century was closing, in 1909-10 

 not only passed 4,000 but touched 4,227, an 

 increase of 242 in a single year. Although 

 the total attendance of regular students has 

 increased from 2,845 in 1901-02 to 4,227 

 in 1909-10 the number of women has re- 

 mained stationary; it was 400 in 1901-02 

 and 397 in 1909-10. 



What is now called a university was 

 originally designated a studium generate: a 

 place of study, not merely for students of 

 the locality, but for students from other 

 and all localities. Cornell continues to ex- 

 hibit in a marked degree this cosmopolitan 

 character of the historic university. It 

 draws about half its students from the state 

 of New York, and the other half from all 

 other states of the union, from North, Cen- 

 tral and South America, and from Europe, 

 Asia, Africa and Australia. 



The facts and figures given above indi- 

 cate the student problem so far as numbers 

 are concerned. Cornell University is un- 

 dertaking to educate several thousands of 

 students every year. And the numbers of 

 students go on increasing in spite of suc- 

 cessive advancements made in the require- 

 ments for admission and graduation and 

 marked and growing strictness in adminis- 

 tering them. 



The charter of Cornell University dedi- 

 cates the institution to research as well as 

 instruction. Might the problem of over- 

 crowding not be solved by turning the uni- 

 versity into an institution of research? 

 There are objections in the interest of re- 

 search itself to this limitation of the insti- 

 tution to investigators with the exclusion of 

 all undergTaduates. 



Undoubtedly it would be possible to limit 

 the attendance. But what criterion shall 

 be applied for this purpose? The educa- 

 tional standards have already been greatly 



