August 8, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



185 



To make this study more complete one 

 would need to show the tendency, that is, 

 whether the custom of setting senior finals at 

 the same time as the finals for other students 

 is increasing, or vice versa, and whether ex- 

 cusing seniors from finals is becoming more 

 or less prevalent. The questionnaire did not 

 provide for this aspect of the matter. It was 

 arranged so as to elicit the information sought 

 speedily, and with the least amount of effort 

 on the part of college and university registrars 

 to whom it was sent. This much, however, 

 may be said. Three eastern institutions, each 

 with an income of at least $175,000 a year, 

 have tried the method of earlier examinations 

 for seniors and have abandoned it. This was 

 learned from other sources. One of the cards, 

 also, indicated that an eastern institution in 

 the $100,000 income class, which is now fol- 

 lowing that practise, is seriously considering 

 a change to the method of scheduling the final 

 examinations for all students at the same 

 time. 



In regard to excusing from examinations, it 

 may be said that the return postals from two 

 institutions indicated that they are contem- 

 plating adopting this method, but both are in 

 the class with an annual income of from 

 $5,000 to $25,000, and in the North Central 

 section. Fifteen postals, rather evenly dis- 

 tributed throughout the country, indicated by 

 such expressions as " Never," " All stand 

 examination," " Not excused under any condi- 

 tion," " All must take both mid-year and final 

 examinations," a decided opposition to any 

 such practise. 



A few institutions indicated that the diffi- 

 culty of grading seniors carefully, when their 

 examinations come at the regular time, just 

 before commencement, is met by putting 

 senior subjects, so far as compatible with a 

 rather wide range of electives, early in the ex- 

 amination period, which, it was shown, extends 

 through one or two weeks. 



In attempting to state briefly what this 

 study has shown, I may not assume that there 

 is any method that may be regarded as abso- 

 lutely best. A practise which is generally 

 favored may not be the best. It is the small 



group of institutions, or a single institution, 

 which may by experiment discover a method 

 superior to one long tried and approved. 

 None the less, the practise of a decided ma- 

 jority of the better equipped institutions, 

 judging from their annual income, is very 

 significant. That majority is 48 to 25, as 

 given on page 182. While not final, their in- 

 sistence upon scheduling senior examinations 

 at the same time as for other students, and 

 their tendency not to excuse seniors from the 

 second semester or spring term examinations, 

 the majority against being about the same as 

 in the other case, would seem to indicate what 

 is best at present. 



Gregory D. Walcott 

 Hamline University, 

 St. Paul, Minn. 



WILLIAM MCMUSTBIE^ 

 "William McMurtrie was born on March 10, 

 1851, on a farm near Belvidere, N. J. He was 

 an active, energetic lad at school and at 

 Lafayette College, where he entered in the 

 mining engineering course in 1868, graduating 

 in 1871. While in college he was a member of 

 the Franklin Literary Society and of the Zeta 

 Psi fraternity. Among his classmates were 

 the late John Meigs, proprietor of the famous 

 Hill School of Pottstown; Dr. W. B. Owen, 

 a well-known and influential member of the 

 faculty of Lafayette College; D. B. King, of 

 New York City, and H. P. Glover, of Mifflin- 

 burg, Pa. 



In 1872 McMurtrie became assistant chem- 

 ist in the U. S. Department of Agriculture at 

 Washington, D. C, Dr. R. J. Brown being the 

 chief chemist. Dr. Wiley says: 



^ Several biographical notices of Dr. McMurtrie 

 have already appeared — one by Dr. C. P. Mc- 

 Kenna ia The Percolator, issued regularly by the 

 Chemists' Club of New York City (June 20, 1913), 

 a more extended notice by Dr. H. W. Wiley in 

 the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chem- 

 istry (July, 1913, p. 616). The last named con- 

 tains a bibliography by Douglas C. McMurtrie. 

 I have drawn upon both these sources. The dates 

 are from Dr. Stonecipher 's "Bibliographical Cat- 

 alogue of Lafayette College" and from "Who's 

 Who in America. ' ' 



