December 25, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



919 



of truth and apparently of no commercial 

 value, nevertheless laid the foundations of 

 electrical engineering. If we can dissemi- 

 nate such knowledge, which is capable of 

 the easiest demonstration and the most 

 striking illustration, we can multiply the 

 friends of pure science and secure new and 

 larger endowments for physics, chemistry 

 and other fundamental subjects. 



[While there can be no doubt of the im- 

 portance of emphasizing the value of in- 

 dustrial research, the necessity of vigilance 

 in the interests of pure science is shown by 

 the opposite tendency of several recent 

 writers, who measure science solely in 

 terms of its applicability in the arts. 



The stimulus of commercial rivalry is 

 doubtless a factor in the rapid progress of 

 our great industrial laboratories, but I 

 doubt if their directors would maintain 

 that all chemical research should be of the 

 industrial kind. Immediate commercial 

 value as a criterion of success will not 

 often point the way to the discovery of 

 fundamental laws, though these are by far 

 the richest source of ultimate achievement, 

 practical as well as theoretical. Modern 

 electrical engineers do not forget the inves- 

 tigations of Faraday and Hertz in pure sci- 

 ence, nor do leading industrial chemists 

 overlook the researches of Gibbs, van't Hoff, 

 and others, which brought them no practical 

 returns, but rendered many modern indus- 

 tries possible. Exclusive attention to in- 

 dustrial research means nothing more or 

 less than the growth of the superstructure 

 at the expense of the foundations. In- 

 dustrial laboratories are able to offer large 

 salaries and other tempting promises of 

 material advantages, and thus to draw the 

 most promising men from the universities. 

 But while these laboratories should be 

 strongly encouraged, and multiplied to the 

 point where every small manufacturer will 



realize the value of research methods, this 

 should not be done at the serious expense of 

 pure science. Germany's success on the 

 industrial side is primarily due to her still 

 greater achievements in the university 

 laboratories. The National Academy, by 

 helping to maintain the two phases of 

 American research in stable equilibrium, 

 can perform a service which the truest ad- 

 vocates of applied science will recognize as 

 essential to sound progress.] 



George Ellery Halh 



The Mount Wilson 



SOLAK ObSBEVATOEY 



(Te ie continued) 



UNIVESSITT SEGISTBATION STATISTICS 

 The registration returns for November 1, 

 1914, of thirty of the universities of th« 

 country will be found tabulated on a following 

 page. These statistics show only the regis- 

 tration in the universities considered. There 

 is no intention to convey the idea that these 

 universities are the thirty largest universities 

 in the country, nor that they are neeessarilj 

 the leading institutions. 



The largest gains in terms of student units, 

 including the summer attendance, but making 

 due allowance by deduction for the summei^ 

 session students who returned for instruction 

 in the fall, were registered by Columbia 

 (1,365), California (1,109), Pittsburgh (1,069), 

 Ohio State (832), Wisconsin (806), Har- 

 vard (784), New York University (634), 

 Minnesota (552), Pennsylvania (536), Illinois 

 (405), Nebraska (349), Cornell (327), Cin- 

 cinnati (319) and Michigan (311). 



Last year there was none that showed » 

 gain of more than 1,000 against four this year, 

 and ten institutions showed gains of more than 

 300 against fourteen of this year. They were : 

 New York University, Illinois, Columbia, 

 Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, California, Iowa, 

 Ohio State, Chicago and Michigan. There is 

 a theory that universities and colleges have 

 larger increases than usual when national 

 economic conditions are bad, that is during 



