556 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1033 



The question of the degrees and distributions 

 of heredity awaits a proper mode of recogni- 

 tion of the presence of the inherited traits. 

 These are not as obvious as tallness or color 

 in peas; they must in some reasonable way 

 be made distinguishable and recognizable be- 

 fore their evidence can support the principles 

 which they doubtless embody. 



Joseph Jastrow 

 Madison, Wis'., 

 September 21 



QUANTITY AND RANK Or UNIVERSITY ATTENDANCE 



Recently published statistics on student 

 attendance at our leading colleges are more 

 notable because of certain necessary conclu- 

 sions omitted than for inferences plainly in- 

 tended to be drawn. The figures are over- 

 whelmingly convincing when quantity alone 

 is considered. When we attempt to evaluate 

 university powers for administrating to the 

 advancement of civilization — the primal pur- 

 pose for which these institutions are estab- 

 lished — naked quantity is the one factor of all 

 which we should most wish to forget. Quality 

 is the feature which ought to be most assidu- 

 ously cultivated. It is not what goes into the 

 mill, but what comes out of it, that counts. 



In this last conspectus of attendance, for 

 'example, thirty American universities are 

 considered. From institutions having the 

 highest number of students, where the figures 

 reach nearly 10,000, there is graduated prece- 

 dence down to the thirtieth and last worth 

 mentioning school. This last listed school be- 

 comes especially conspicuous because of the 

 fact that its place is last. 



The attendance table mentioned might have 

 placed even greater emphasis on the quantity 

 feature. Only the two hundred odd graduate 

 students of this thirtieth and last listed insti- 

 tution might have been taken into account 

 and this thirtieth school would then be made 

 to assume the role of the tail-ender among 400 

 colleges of the land. But it is in this small 

 body of students that lies the very essence of 

 that quality of mental aptitude to which 

 special attention is here directed, and which 

 is entirely overlooked in the comparison. 



Now it so happens that we have some very 

 exact figures by which to express the quality 

 of American intellectuality. They are far 

 more reliable than any statistics which relate 

 to mere numbers, because of the fact that they 

 represent the mature and composite opinion 

 of our most eminent scientific minds. It is 

 well known how, by the one hundred author- 

 ities in science, there were selected the names 

 of 1,000 men most distinguished in the several 

 branches of knowledge; and how this list was 

 recently published by Prof. J. McKeen Oattell. 



Among the thousand American men of sci- 

 ence who have become during their genera- 

 tion especially distinguished, who have main- 

 tained themselves as leading figures in advanced 

 thought of the nation, and who have acquired 

 something of an international reputation let us 

 briefly trace the spell of the last and thirtieth 

 school — ^the Johns Hopkins University. In 

 the accompanying table is given the number 

 out of the thousand of " starred " men who 

 belong in each of the twelve principal branches 

 of science. Then follows the number out of 

 each group which has been directly associated 

 with the Johns Hopkins University. In the 

 third column are the percentages of Johns 

 Hopkins men in each department. 



During the next generation, in spite of loud 

 prediction to the contrary, these percentages 

 will probably increase rather than diminish. 

 The first generation of Hopkins men is yet in 

 its prime. In a remarkable way it is copi- 

 ously and creatively productive. Over all 

 American competitors it has the start of 20 

 years. Whether in the third generation there 



