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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 838 



ment." This, to his vision, is a far-off divine 

 event to which the whole educational creation 

 is moving. K so, it is moving backwards. 



Mr. Cooke's remarks on the economic use 

 of rooms and buildings are, for the most part, 

 eminently sensible, ■ although he contributes 

 nothing new to the discussion of a very old 

 problem. His economic sense is shocked on 

 learning that a lecture room in the depart- 

 ment of physics is used only four hours a day, 

 just as it must be shocked when a church is 

 used only a few hours a week, or a life belt 

 only when it is actually needed. In some of 

 his criticisms under this heading he seems to 

 forget that colleges have to make the best of 

 the materials that are available and that in 

 many cases an apparently uneconomic use of 

 rooms is forced upon them because their 

 buildings are old, or were designed for other 

 purposes than those to which they have now 

 to be put. He commends one institution for 

 a space-saving device and wonders that it is 

 not adopted in all departments, the fact being 

 that the newer buildings were designed for its 

 use, but the older ones were so constructed 

 that its adoption there would not have been 

 a real economy. 



Mr. Cooke displays unusual weakness when 

 he takes up the subject of research. Indeed 

 most of what he says on this subject must be 

 received with that mixture of astonishment 

 and embarrassment with which we listen to 

 the words of a distinguished friend who pro- 

 nounces an absurd judgment on an important 

 subject that he has evidently not mastered. 

 Listen to this. " I believe there is a distinct 

 disadvantage to undergraduate students to be 

 near research work. I think in the case of 

 physics research workers, their good influence 

 is more often offset hy the introduction into 

 the undergraduate laioratories of the neces- 

 sarily deliherate and experimental methods of 

 the research laioratory " ! ! How unfortunate 

 if " deliberation " and the " experimental 

 method " should contaminate the laboratories 

 — it might detract from the " snap and 

 vigor" of these promising undergraduates. 

 And yet one wonders what possible use there 

 can be in teaching physics at all, if so much 



care is to be taken to guard the students from 

 catching its spirit and grasping its method. 

 We, in our ignorance, had imagined that the 

 method and the spirit of science were its very 

 essence, especially where undergraduate learn- 

 ing is concerned. We should have accounted 

 any system of education that failed to recog- 

 nize this as but so much dross and dung (if, 

 at this season, a Scriptural phrase may be 

 permitted) even if it resulted in every under- 

 graduate gaining 100 per cent, in the examina- 

 tions conducted by Mr. Cooke's " bureau of 

 inspection." 



Perhaps enough has been said to indicate 

 that there are serious blemishes in this bul- 

 letin. If, however, it be taken for just what 

 it is worth, it can do no harm and may do 

 much good. We should regard as a friend 

 every one who helps us to improve our meth- 

 ods and if this report enables us to keep our 

 accounts better, or make a more economical 

 use of our machinery, of course it will be 

 heartily welcomed. The most serious objec- 

 tion that I see to it lies in its abuse rather 

 than its legitimate use. I fear that it will 

 tend to increase the administrative machinery 

 of our educational institutions, machinery 

 that is already far too much in evidence. 

 When one listens to all the criticism of our 

 colleges and thinks of the great things that 

 have been accomplished elsewhere with so 

 little machinery and so little noise, one 

 wonders whether it might not be better for 

 us also to settle down to quiet work. Then I 

 confess that all this talk of " cost per student 

 hour " strains my patience to the limit, espe- 

 cially when it is presented under the heading 

 " gauge of efficiency." Mr. Cooke frankly 

 recognizes its usefulness to this end, but 

 others may be led astray by the specious, 

 analogy with the workings of a factory. A 

 college that had reached the acme of perfec- 

 tion as gauged by Mr. Cooke's standards might, 

 be highly inefficient as an instrument of real 

 education. Mr. Cooke tells us that in study- 

 ing the colleges he has constantly held in 

 mind " the equivalent mechanism " used in 

 the industrial world and apparently he looks, 

 forward with pious expectation to the day 



