NOVEMBEB 3, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



605 



1900) : " We are still searching for the laws 

 that govern the growth of human culture, of 

 human thought; but we recognize the fact 

 that before we seek for what is common in all 

 culture, we must analyze each culture by care- 

 ful and exact methods, as the geologist 

 analyzes the succession and order of deposits, 

 as the biologist examines the forms of living 

 matter." 



It is not too much to say that during at 

 least the last decade Professor Boas's point of 

 view has dominated the ethnological work of 

 the younger ethnologists of this country. 

 American ethnologists have been well aware 

 of the opposition of their methods to those of 

 the traditional evolutionary school, as might 

 be gathered from Wissler and Lowie's annual 

 survey of anthropological activity in The New 

 International Year Book (for 1907 and 1910) 

 or the present writer's comments on Schurtz's 

 and Webster's theories as to the development 

 of secret societies (" The Assiniboine," p. 

 75). Nor has this American point of view 

 been without influence on detailed ethno- 

 graphic study. In the investigation of the 

 Plateau area, the doctrine of a blending of 

 cultures has been the theoretical peg on which 

 we have hung our facts. This view is domi- 

 nant, for example, in Dr. H. J. Spinden's 

 monograph on the Nez Perce. It is certainly 

 still more remarkable that this geographical 

 attitude common to many American students 

 should have escaped Dr. Eivers's attention 

 even in one of the two American papers 

 specifically referred to by him. For Golden- 

 weiser's investigation of totemism is not only 

 permeated by the spirit of the historico-an- 

 alytical method, but includes, in the final 

 chapter, an emphatic protest against any other 

 method of inquiry for the reconstruction of 

 cultural development. 



Nevertheless, questions of priority or mis- 

 understanding are relatively unimportant. 

 The significant fact remains that one of the 

 most distinguished of English ethnologists 

 now finds himseK in substantial agreement 

 with the position generally held in America. 

 Egbert H. Lowie 



Amekican Museum of Natural Histoet 



QVOTATIONS 



REFORM m COLLEGE ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS 



Three notable reports, dealing with require- 

 ments for admission and the relation of these 

 to the high-school curriculum, were made at 

 the last meeting of the New England Associa- 

 tion of Colleges and Preparatory Schools at 

 its recent meeting held at Cambridge, October 

 13 and 14. 



President Lowell's report on the operation 

 of Harvard's new alternative method was of 

 especial interest inasmuch as it gave the first 

 results of the test of the new plan. This plan 

 aims to get into closer touch with the high 

 schools, especially those in the west, rather 

 than the private fitting schools, by giving the 

 secondary school greater freedom in courses 

 and methods of study. President LoweU re- 

 ported that there were 206 applications for 

 admission under the new plan. Of these 66 

 were refused admission upon their school 

 record. Of the 140 allowed to try, 57 were 

 rejected, 83 admitted. In other words, a larger 

 number of candidates was refused admission 

 under the new plan than under the old. More- 

 over, several students rejected under the new 

 plan in June were admitted under the old 

 regulations in September. 



As to the geographical distribution of can- 

 didates : under the old plan 84 9/10 per cent, 

 came from New England states, BJ per cent, 

 from the other Atlantic states and but 4J per 

 cent, from the western states. Under the new 

 plan, 47 per cent, of the candidates came from 

 the New England states, 41 J per cent, from the 

 Atlantic states and 21^ per cent, from west of 

 the Alleghenies. As to the character of pre- 

 paratory school: Under the old plan, 54 per 

 cent, of Harvard's students came from private 

 fitting schools, 45 per cent, from public high 

 schools. Under the new plan there were 15^ 

 per cent, of the candidates from private schools 

 and 83i per cent, from public schools. 



In sharp contrast with the requirements and 

 methods of Harvard and the other eastern 

 examining colleges is the new method of ad- 

 mission to the University of Chicago as re- 

 ported at the same meeting by Professor Judd 

 and the plan proposed by the National Educa- 



