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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1027 



housed the summer school of a thousand stu- 

 dents. In the basement of the latter building 

 is located the power plant for heating, light- 

 ing and ventilating the buildings over the en- 

 tire campus of 50 acres. Two other buildings 

 are in process of erection. One is the Jesup 

 Psychology Laboratory costing $75,000. The 

 other is the Social Religious building, which 

 is designed to play an important part in the 

 life of students, both in a social way and as a 

 preparation for real service in life. This 

 building will be the most commodious on the 

 campus and will probably cost about $300,000. 

 Mr. Dorr Skeels, of the U. S. Forest Serv- 

 ice, has been elected dean of the new school of 

 forestry that has been established at the Uni- 

 versity of Montana. 



Dr. Theodore 0. Frye, professor of botany, 

 has been named temporary dean of the college 

 of science by the University of Washington 

 regents to succeed Dr. Henry Landes, acting 

 president of the university. 



The following promotions have been made 

 at the University of Colorado : Ralph D. Craw- 

 ford, Ph.D., to be professor of mineralogy and 

 petrology ; Max M. Ellis, Ph.D., to be assistant 

 professor of biology; Frank S. Bauer, B.S., to 

 be assistant professor of mechanical engineer- 

 ing. The following new appointments for the 

 coming year have been made: James L. Mer- 

 rill, B.S., instructor in engineering drawing; 

 Walter F. Mallory, B.S., instructor in mechan- 

 ical engineering; Clarence L. Eckel, B.S., in- 

 structor in civil engineering; Edward R. 

 Mugrage, M.D., instructor in pathology; Jay 

 W. Woodrow, Oxford University Rhodes 

 Scholar, 1910-12, Ph.D. (Tale, '13), instructor 

 in physics; Esbon T. Titus, B.A., instructor 

 in chemistry. 



DISCUSSION AND COBEESFONDENCE 



COMPOSITION AND THOUGHT 



To THE Editor of Science : In the February 

 issue of Modern Language Notes appears from 

 the hand of Professor French a rather unap- 

 preciative review of a new type of rhetoric by 

 Steeves and Ristine; the title of the work is 

 "Representative Essays in Modern Thought." 



The review may go far to discourage the use 

 of the book. And, since I doubt whether many 

 of the readers of Science realize the impor- 

 tance to them of this innovation in rhetorical 

 fields, I beg indulgence to comment upon the 

 method by which the new rhetoric has been 

 used in a western university. 



" Representative Essays in Modern Thought " 

 is intended to serve a new purpose in the 

 rhetorical kingdom; students already trained 

 in the essentials of expression are here pre- 

 sented with essays by Mill, Huxley, James, 

 Maine, Clark and other writers famous noifc 

 only for the clearness of their expression, but 

 also for the solidity and pregnancy of their 

 material. The student, having read any given 

 essay, is asked each week to present his re- 

 action upon that essay. Needing no discus- 

 sion, surely, are the value of the analysis and 

 outlining of these essays, and the mere advan- 

 tage of the incidental knowledge gained. But 

 two other points may well be emphasized: the 

 awakening of the promising student to a 

 genuine understanding of the timidity and 

 slovenliness of his habits of thought; and the 

 placing before him in the second semester of 

 his freshman year at college of the sound prin- 

 ciples of topics he hears everywhere discussed. 



In the second semester of his freshman year, 

 I repeat. That is the point which needs de- 

 fense against the avowed antagonism of more 

 than one instructor of rhetoric. The students 

 in our modern universities who most need to 

 learn to write are not those who already love 

 to write; rather, they are the students in sci- 

 ence, engineering, law and other professional 

 fields. Yet it is perfectly obvious that our 

 crowded curricula seldom, if ever, allow these 

 students to take advanced courses in composi- 

 tion. Nor, he it predicated at once, would I 

 rush the honest journeymen in such courses 

 into the study of Steeves and Ristine. How 

 much could be done for the mediocre student 

 I am rather uncertain ; and I refrain from the 

 speculation in futurities in which even my 

 scientific friends are prone to indulge. Here, 

 statements are limited to what can be done 

 for second-semester freshmen who have 



