7G2 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 205. 



the colleges already have considerable 

 facilities. The conveutiou just closed was 

 attended by delegates from everj' part of 

 the country, and was regarded as a verj- 

 successful meeting. 



The annual address of the President of 

 the Association, Dr. H. C. White, Presi- 

 dent of the Georgia State College of Agri- 

 culture and Mechanic Arts, was an nnusu- 

 ally eloquent and able presentation of the 

 breadth and strength of the education given 

 along scientific and industrial lines in many 

 of our land-grant colleges. He showed how 

 ' the scholar ' was the product of such edu- 

 cation just as truly as of institutions built 

 on classical foundations. He also pointed 

 out that these institutions, which derive 

 their support so largely from the United 

 States Treasury, together constitute a 

 great national university. The address thus 

 furnished an appropriate introduction to the 

 discussion of one of the most important 

 topics taken up by the convention. There 

 is a strong feeling among these institutions 

 that the facilities for graduate study which 

 are embraced in the great libraries, museums 

 and scientific laboratories of the Govern- 

 ment at ^Yashingtou should be open to 

 their students. A year ago the Association 

 appointed a committee " to devise a plan 

 wherebj- graduate students of the land- 

 grant and other colleges may have access 

 to, and the use of, the Congressional Li- 

 brary and the collections in the Smithsonian 

 Institution, the IsTational Museum and the 

 scientific bureaus of the various Depart- 

 ments, at ^Yashington. of the United States 

 Government, for the purpose of study and 

 research." This committee consisted of 

 President Xorthrop, of the University of 

 Minnesota ; Secretary Cope, of Ohio State 

 University ; President Buckham, of the 

 Universitj' of Vermont ; President Ellis, 

 of the State Agricultural College of Colo- 

 rado ; Chancellor McLean, of the University 

 of Nebraska ; President J. H. Washburn. 



of the Ehode Island College of Agriculture 

 and ^Mechanic Arts. The committee, after 

 a careful personal examination of the con- 

 ditions in the difl'erent Departments at 

 "Washington, presented a report at this 

 meeting of the Association, which included 

 a recommendation that Congress be asked 

 to pass the necessary legislation to organize 

 a bureau of graduate studj', preferably in 

 the Smithsonian Institution, through which 

 students from American colleges may have 

 open to them the vast accumulations of 

 scientific and other material for study ex- 

 isting at the National Capital. It was 

 urged that this could be done at compara- 

 tively little expense, and that the high 

 standing of the Smithsonian Institution in 

 the scientific world, and its conservative 

 organization, would enable it to carrj^ on 

 this work in a most creditable and satisfac- 

 tory manner. The report was heartily en- 

 dorsed by the Association, and the commit- 

 tee was instructed to make everj' effort to 

 secure the necessary legislation at an earlj' 

 day. In this connection it may be interest- 

 ing to note that it is the expressed intention 

 of the Secretary of Agriculture to include 

 in his forthcoming annual report a recom- 

 mendation that the scientific divisions of the 

 Department be open to a limited number of 

 graduate students who will be admitted as 

 the result of a competitive test, probably 

 under the Civil Service Commission, and 

 who may in some cases receive limited 

 compensation for such services as they may 

 render the Department in connection with 

 their researches. 



Another topic which attracted great inter- 

 est at the meeting was the problem of more 

 thoroughly organizing the military instruc- 

 tion which, under the law, is given in the in- 

 stitutions included in the Association. An 

 able paper on this subject was read by Presi- 

 dent C. W. Dabney, Jr., of the University 

 of Tennessee. In this paper, which received 

 the hearty endorsement of the Association, 



