350 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1106 



group of students, as reported to me by the 

 university. 



These students, numbering 308, were classi- 

 fied Ifovember 1, 1914, under " Other Courses," 

 and were included in the total for the univer- 

 sity. Unfortunately, for November 1, 1915, 

 the same group of students, numbering 60Y, 

 V7ere classified under " Extension and Similar 

 Courses " — a classification not included in the 

 total. This makes the discrepancy in the com- 

 parison of totals and accounts for the appar- 

 ent loss reported. 



Professor James Sutton, recorder of fac- 

 ulties of the University of California, reports 

 that of the 3,317 students listed in the sta- 

 tistics in Science of January 21, 1916, under 

 " College," 1Y4 are students in the school of 

 architecture. 



John 0. Burg 



Northwestern Uni'versitt 



QUOTATIONS 



SCIENCE ON THE WAR PATH 



ISTo unofficial war doctmient thus far pub- 

 lished can compare in importance with 

 the manifesto issued yesterday on the subject 

 of our national neglect of science. The signa- 

 tories include many of the foremost scientific 

 names of the day. The arguments are crush- 

 ing in their conclusiveness. Best of all, if it 

 is permissible so to speak, the manifesto is 

 issued at a time when we are face to face with 

 the most lurid of object lessons. The bulk of 

 our failures in the war have been a conse- 

 quence of our neglect of that scientific energy, 

 strenuousness and organization of which the 

 Germans make so much. We believe their 

 achievements in this field are exaggerated. At 

 the same time, they are far too obvious for us 

 to remain undisturbed by them unless we mean 

 to resign our ancient place in the world. 



The signatories of the scientific manifesto 

 point out that our highest ministers of state 

 are mostly ignorant of the obvious facts and 

 principles of " mechanics, chemistry, physics, 

 biology, geography and geology." It will be 

 noted that economics is not included, possibly 

 because it is regarded as a department of biol- 

 ogy. The same ignorance, as the scientists 



say, runs through the public departments of 

 the civil service, and is nearly universal in the 

 House of Commons. Its existence has been 

 demonstrated by the announcement, on the 

 part of a member of the government, that the 

 possibility of making glycerine from lard was 

 a recent discovery. Doubtless some other min- 

 ister will shortly allude to the law of gravita- 

 tion or to spectrum analysis as phenomena 

 which have recently come within the cog- 

 nizance of the government. The remedy for 

 this state of afFairs, in the opinion of the dis- 

 tinguished scientists, " is a great change in 

 the education which is administered to the 

 class from which public officials are drawn." 

 Science should play a larger part in the civil 

 servants' examinations, to the exclusion of 

 Latin and Greek. "Eventually, the Board 

 of Trade would be replaced by a Ministry of 

 Science, Commerce and Industry, in full touch 

 with the scientific knowledge of the moment." 

 In those circumstances, the manifesto goes on 

 to say, with an optimism which is almost 

 pathetic, " public opinion would compel the 

 inclusion of great scientific discoverers and 

 inventors as a matter of course in the Privy 

 Council and their occupation in the service 

 of the state." But if the Privy Council is to 

 be filled up with scientific discoverers, how are 

 party hacks and political schemers to be re- 

 warded for their sycophantic services where 

 they can not afford to pay the price for a 

 knighthood or a peerage? 



About the peremptory necessity of better 

 scientific organization on national lines there 

 can be no two opinions. It is not only a ques- 

 tion of OUT prosperity, but of our existence. 

 The law of the survival of the fittest works 

 just as inexorably among nations as it does 

 among individuals. "We can be the fittest if 

 we like. Unless we do like we shall not sur- 

 vive. But if we are to tackle seriously this 

 problem of scientific reorganization, we shall 

 have to scrap the whole of our rotten and 

 antiquated political machinery. The scien- 

 tific mind and temper can not possibly flourish 

 in an atmosphere of political trickery, nepot- 

 ism and plunder such as that which has sur- 

 rounded us for the last few centuries. For 



