578 



SCIEJ^CE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 303 



work of his own department. Professor Ricker 

 finds that his work naturally subdivides itself into 

 four classes. 



The first of these classes comprises the univer- 

 sity work proper, consisting of the methods em- 

 ployed and the instruction imparted in the. tech- 

 nical classes. The second embraces the general 

 supervision of the courses of instruction in shop 

 practice, arrangement of course of study, prob- 

 lems; etc. The third covers the supervision of 

 the commercial work of the university, compris- 

 ing superintendence of work and contractors, the 

 making of estimates, drawings, specifications, 

 etc. The fourth is the supervision of the blue- 

 printing laboratory. The course in shop practice 

 offers some points of interest. It is arranged 

 throughout on the Riissian system, which Pro- 

 fessor Ricker believes to be productive of better 

 results than the Woodward system, which has 

 been adopted in the training-schools of St. Louis 

 and Chicago. At the University of Illinois no 

 attempt is made to compel all the members of a 

 class to do each part of the work in exactly the 

 same time, for Professor Ricker holds that practice 

 and competition u-ill make a man rapid in exe- 

 cution soon enough, the first essential being to 

 teach him how to work in the best manner, no 

 matter how long it takes him. By adopting this 

 system, each student is treated as an individual, 

 and not as a member of a class ; and bright and 

 quick pupils ai-e not kept back, nor are the slow- 

 er ones urged on at the expense of thorough- 

 ness. Professor Picker's equipment consists of 

 benches and sets of tools for twenty-four stu- 

 dents, the maximum number that he thinks an 

 instructor can profitably take charge of. 



Dr. Cunningham, the successor of the lamented 

 Principal Tullochat St. Andrews, opened his classes 

 in divinity with an address of great power and 

 lucidity. After a glance at the past and a glow- 

 ing panegyric upon his predecessor, Dr. Cunning- 

 ham took up the subject of his chair and ex- 

 pounded with unusual clearness his conception 

 of it. He said that at the outset he must answer 

 the question, ' Is theology a science ? ' If it is a 

 science, then it should be welcomed within every 

 university, and taught with the care bestowed 

 upon the other sciences ; but if not, if it is a 

 mere feeling or belief without any foundation in 

 reason, without any capability of being reduced 



to logical forms, then it ought to be banished from 

 every university as something alien to their spirit 

 and design. Dr. Cunningham then proceeded to 

 vindicate for theology the rank and title of a sci- 

 ence. While it was largely dependent on meta- 

 physics, on psychology, on moral philosophy, and 

 on anthropology, yet it had facts of its own, gath- 

 ered from both the material and mental worlds ; 

 which facts can be gathered into a system, and 

 reasoned upon in a scientific way. This being 

 true, it follows as a corollary, the speaker con- 

 tinued, that theology should be treated as a sci- 

 ence, studied as a science, and taught as a science, 

 freely and fully ; not as a system of foregone con- 

 clusions, but as a subject capable of advancement, 

 and therefore to be looked into, speculated upon, 

 and brought into harmony with the widening 

 knowledge and highest thinking of the age. If 

 the chemist, astronomer, or physiologist were 

 bound to teach his science according to the 

 beliefs of the chemists, astronomers, or physi- 

 ologists of a century, or two centuries, or ten 

 centuries ago, his teaching would be a laugh- 

 ing-stock, and his chair driven from the univer- 

 sity as unworthy of it. Similarly the professor of 

 theology must be allowed free scope, and not tied 

 down to theology as it was taught two hundred 

 and fifty years ago. Dr. Cunningham's address 

 was on a high plane, and, if it is a fair measure of 

 the character of his university teaching, the latter 

 cannot fail to be successful. 



LONGEVITY OF PRESIDENTS OF THE 

 UNITED STATES. 



Of the men who have retired from the office of 

 President of the United States, only one now litres. 

 During the last year of Grant's administration, 

 none at all were living ; and hardly at any time 

 within the memory of the younger generation 

 have more than two or three lived at the same 

 time. The inquiry naturally suggests itself, 

 whether the men who have filled this office have 

 really less viability than other men of their class, 

 and especially whether a comparison with the 

 tables of mortality justifies the conclusion that in 

 recent years the mortality among them has been 

 remarkable. 



To furnish data for investigating this question, 

 I have prepared the following table, showing the 

 years of birth, accession, and death, of all the 

 Presidents. The column following the year of 

 death shows the age at which each President 

 assumed his office. It is formed by subtracting 



