August 22, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



261 



Yale and the Johns Hopkins. The most 

 notable advance, however, has been in the 

 ease of the state universities, especially 

 Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois. Both 

 last year and this the last-mentioned uni- 

 versity conferred twenty degrees, whereas 

 during the entire ten-year period from 

 1898 to 1907 only five degrees were con- 

 ferred. In 1912 and 1913 Princeton has 

 also increased to a considerable extent the 

 number of its higher degrees. This year 

 Harvard and Tale conferred more degrees 

 than usual, while the number at Columbia 

 decreased. Such annual changes have, 

 however, no special significance. This 

 year Columbia University conferred about 

 500 master of arts degrees, by far the 

 largest number in the history of any Amer- 

 ican institution. 



When we turn to the degrees conferred in 

 the natural and exact sciences, we find that 

 Chicago and the John Hopkins have still 

 conferred the largest numbers in these sub- 

 jects, though this year they fall behind , 

 Columbia, Cornell and Harvard. Of the 

 leading universities, Cornell and the Johns 

 Hopkins have conferred the largest per- 

 centages of their degrees in science, 68 and 

 60, respectively. The percentage is ex- 

 actly the same for Columbia, Harvard, 

 Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, namely, 40 

 per cent. In the separate sciences there 

 were this year 68 degrees given in chem- 

 istry, 27 in botany, 24 each in zoology and 

 in psychology and 21 in physics. More 

 degrees than usual were conferred in as- 

 tronomy, as many as six, all the degrees 

 the university conferred, being granted by 

 California. 



It is not altogether easy to make a satis- 

 factory distribution of the degrees. Thus 

 Harvard conferred degrees in applied biol- 

 ogy and Cornell in plant breeding, and 

 degrees may be conferred in genetics and 

 plant pathology. It would scarcely do to 



have entries for subjects such as these, yet 

 it is not certain whether they should be 

 placed under botany or agriculture. This 

 is only an example of difiiculties which 

 occur in all such classifications; while the 

 table is substantially correct, it is not cer- 

 tain that exactly the same methods of 

 classification have been followed from 

 year to year. 



It will be noted that while this year the 

 number of degrees in the exact and natural 

 sciences falls from 273 to 231, the number 

 of degrees in the humanities is increased 

 from 209 to 230. In the latter subjects 

 English leads decidedly, followed by his- 

 tory, economics, philosophy and education. 

 Latin and German are bracketed, while 

 more degrees have been conferred in the 

 oriental languages than in Greek. 



The institutions which this year con- 

 ferred two or more degrees in a science 

 are : in chemistry, Columbia, 13 ; Yale, 10 ; 

 Cornell and Johns H(?pkins, 7 each; Pitts- 

 burgh, 5; Illinois, 4; Harvard, 3; Chicago, 

 New York, Pennsylvania and Princeton, 2 

 each; in physics, Cornell, 4; Harvard and 

 Johns Hopkins, 3 each; Stanford and 

 Yale, 2 each; in zoology, Illinois, 5; Har- 

 vard, 4; Columbia, 3; Chicago and Stan- 

 ford, 2 each; in psychology, Clark, 8; 

 Chicago, Columbia and Cornell, 3 each; 

 Iowa and Johns Hopkins, 2 each ; in math- 

 ematics, Harvard, 4; Columbia and Johns 

 Hopkins, 3 each; Boston, Michigan and 

 Yale, 2 each ; in iotany, Cornell, 5 ; Har- 

 vard, 4; Michigan, Pennsylvania and 

 Washington, 3 each; Columbia, Johns 

 Hopkins and Wisconsin, 2 each; in geol- 

 ogy, Johns Hopkins, 4; Yale, 3; Chicago 

 and Columbia, 2 each ; in astronomy, 

 California, 6 ; Chicago, 2 ; in agriculture, 

 Cornell, 8; in anthropology, Clark, 2; in 

 pathology, Chicago, 2. 



The names of those on whom the degree 

 was conferred in the natural and exact 



