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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 852 



yet so few are going on and qualifying for 

 even the minor teaching positions. 



In talking this matter over recently with 

 a clergyman, who is also a botanist, he 

 said, "The truth is there is less real schol- 

 arship among students to-day than there 

 used to be," and I think there is a grain 

 of truth in his remark. 



I stopped our professor of Greek the 

 the other day and asked him what he 

 thought of our botanical problem. He 

 said, "It is just because the students have 

 got into the way of taking nothing but 

 first-year work. They take first-year 

 Greek, and that is the end of it, first-year 

 college Latin, first-year geology, first-year 

 philosophy, first-year physics, first-year as- 

 tronomy, and first year American history, 

 and so on. ' ' There is a good deal of truth 

 here too. 



Here then is something to be thought of. 

 Students in the universities are taking be- 

 ginning work only, and botany suffers with 

 all other subjects. As educators we should 

 give serious consideration to this matter. 

 It is not right that we should permit pupils 

 to be taking these little educational bites 

 of all kinds, and in any sequence; on the 

 contrary they should be required to sit 

 down to a good square educational meal 

 taken in proper order. 



It makes one sick at heart to witness 

 what is actually going on in the universi- 

 ties under our very eyes. We spread out 

 before the students the courses we have to 

 offer, and in tempting phrase try to induce 

 as many as possible to enter our classes. 

 I am reminded of the proprietors of bazars 

 who have trinkets for sale, and try to in- 

 duce every passer-by to purchase, by loud 

 insistence upon the advantages resulting 

 from such a transaction. And the bewil- 

 dered student is left without a guiding 

 suggestion in the bulky catalogue. Oh, the 

 folly and the cupidity and the cowardice 



of the system that bids the student make a 

 wise choice, but gives him no guide ! Had 

 I the power I should certainly sweep out 

 of existence all of the go-as-you-please ar- 

 rangements in the universities, and I 

 should substitute for them a logical and 

 carefully selected sequence of studies. 



There is no doubt that many young men 

 turn from botany into various related sub- 

 jects, as agronomy, horticulture, forestry, 

 etc., and I have no complaint to make if 

 they do; but these subjects do draw stu- 

 dents away from scientific botany, and so 

 reduce the number available for teachers. 



Nearly every one of the professors to 

 whom I sent inquiries referred to the low 

 remuneration that comes to the young man 

 who has fitted himself to be an instructor 

 in botany in college or university. And no 

 doubt this is a potent factor, and it is likely 

 to turn away many of the best men from 

 the teachers' ranks. The fact is that a 

 bright young man looking to his life-work 

 will be turned more or less this way or 

 that way, as he sees that the world is ready 

 to pay him for it. Now I dislike to have 

 to say this; we like to think that the best 

 men will go forward if they have to go 

 with only a crust a day, and all that. 

 There is very little truth in it, however. 

 We ourselves go where we find employ- 

 ment and adequate remuneration. And so 

 young men are lured away from botany 

 with its low remuneration, leaving us too 

 frequently only the poorer men. 



Now we do not like to acknowledge this 

 condition of things. We like to think that 

 science is a sacred calling, something apart 

 from business, and we do not like to ac- 

 knowledge that a man who has the scien- 

 tific spirit in him can possibly be turned 

 aside by any thing like a salary. But 

 botany is a business, and it is not sacred 

 any more than selling shoes or editing a 

 newspaper is sacred. And as most men 



