740 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 407. 



attendance at the medical school is scarcely 

 worth mentioning. 



The increase at the University of Min- 

 nesota is small and is to be found almost 

 entirely in the department of agriculture. 

 The slight decrease in the number of male 

 college students is more than made up by 

 the increase of the number of women en- 

 rolled in the college. The law school has 

 remained stationary, the scientific schools 

 show an increase, and the medical faculty, 

 the departments of dentistry and phar- 

 macy, the graduate schools and the summer 

 ■session, show a falling off in attendance. 



At Cornell there has been a slight in- 

 crease in the total attendance, and the 

 typhoid epidemic of last year has appar- 

 ently not affected the , attendance to any 

 great degree. There has been a decrease 

 in the college, the faculty of medicine and 

 the graduate schools. The department of 

 forestry has been abolished and the sum- 

 mer session shows a decrease over' last year. 

 In the ease of Cornell, also, the to't'al is not 

 quite accurate, inasmuch as no exact figures 

 were given with regard to double registra- 

 tion. 



Wisconsin shows considerable gains all 

 along the line, with the exception of the 

 graduate schools and the law faculty, the 

 total enrolment being more than 300 in 

 excess of that of last year. 



The attendance at Yale has also increased 

 over last year, the gains appearing in the 

 college, the Sheffield Scientific School and 

 the department of forestry. The medical 

 and the graduate schools have remained 

 stationary, while the law school and the 

 schools of art, music and divinity show a 

 decrease in enrolment. 



There has been a decrease in the attend- 

 ance at Northwestern University, a con- 

 siderable portion of which is to be found in 

 the faculties of medicine and dentistry. 

 This decrease in attendance at the medical 

 school may be attributed to two causes, 



namely, increased tuition and higher 

 standards of admission. The 100 stu- 

 dents listed under 'Other Courses' are 

 students in oratory. The college and the 

 law school show an increase, while the 

 graduate schools, the divinity school and 

 the department of pharmacy have re- 

 mained stationary. 



Pennsylvania shows a slight increase in 

 the net total enrolment, due almost entirely 

 to gains in the college and scientific schools. 

 Law and dentistry have fallen off, whereas 

 medicine and the graduate schools have re- 

 mained stationary. The 165 students ap- 

 pearing under 'Teachers College' are at- 

 tending courses for teachers. 



At the Universities of Nebraska and 

 Indiana there has been a slight decrease; 

 Leland Stanford, Jr., has remained virtu- 

 ally stationary; while Syracuse, Missouri, 

 Princeton and Johns Hopkins show an in- 

 crease over the attendance of last year. 



Comparing the attendance in the various 

 departments with the figures for last year, 

 the most striking fact is the decided de- 

 crease in the schools of medicine all along 

 the line. In a number of institutions in- 

 creased requirements have had something 

 to do with this loss, yet the higher stand- 

 ards of admission alone can not be held 

 aceotintable. The question arises whether 

 this loss may not be due to a circumstance 

 to which Professor Brouardel, of Paris, 

 points in a recent investigation. Pie claims 

 that the superabundance of physicians go- 

 ing hand in hand with a shortage of 

 patients must be attributed to a decrease 

 in the number of illnesses, a decrease due 

 to the application of modern methods of 

 preventive medicine.* The increase in the 

 cost of procuring a medical education no 



* Of. Walter B. James, ' The Old and the New 

 Medicine,' Columbia University Quarterly, Vol. 

 VI., No. 1, p. 13. At McGill University, Montreal, 

 Canada, the enrolment in the medical school also 

 shows a decrease. 



