Mabch 5, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



381 



sional departments is even more abun- 

 dantly supplied. Medicine is magnificently 

 represented in the oiSce of the Surgeon- 

 Oeneral of the Army, to which belongs the 

 great army medical museum and library 

 and many other useful offices. In the same 

 connection are to be mentioned the Marine 

 Hospital Service of the Treasury Depart- 

 ment, with its admirable laboratories, the 

 Bureau ofMedicineand Surgery of the ISTavy, 

 and the bacteriological and pathological 

 laboratories of the Bureau of Animal In- 

 dustry. 



The material for the professional de- 

 partment of jurisprudence and law is, of 

 course, unsurpassed. Law libraries are 

 found in the Supreme Court, and in nearly 

 all of the other Courts and in several of the 

 executive departments. In fact, it would 

 seem that everything is ready at hand for 

 this department, save only the central or- 

 ganization and the lecture halls. 



In the Department of Agriculture we find 

 all the material ready to hand for a college of 

 agriculture, horticulture and forestry; in the 

 Bureau of Education are rich stores of sta- 

 tistics and other data for the use of students 

 of pedagogics ; in the ofBce of the Architect 

 of the Treasury there is the foundation for 

 a, school of architecture and construction. 

 In fact, so much material is found in Wash- 

 ington that it will be difficult to decide 

 what schools should be started first and 

 and which postponed to some future time. 



1. RELATION OF THE CIVIL SERVICE COM- 

 MISSION THERETO. 



The relation of the Civil Service Commis- 

 sion to the National University has not 

 received sufficient consideration. The dan- 

 ger from the spoils system has been the 

 chief objection to the National University 

 in the minds of some of our greatest and 

 best men. Every one appreciates, there- 

 fore, the service which the Civil Service 

 Commission has rendered the cause by re- 



reducing the opportunities for this vicious 

 practice. The time has now arrived, how- 

 ever, when the Civil Service Commission 

 can render this enterprise additional ser- 

 vice by establishing a .method through 

 which properly prepared students can gain 

 a support, corresponding to scholarships 

 and fellowships, while prosecuting their 

 studies in the different departments of the 

 National University. It is to the method 

 proposed for this purpose that the writer 

 particularly desires to call the attention of 

 the readers of Science at this time. 



It is now proposed by the Civil Service 

 Commission to establish a regular system 

 of examinations to be held at stated times, 

 convenient to the great educational centers 

 in the country, once or twice each year, for 

 the purpose of examining applicants for 

 positions in the scientific service of the 

 government. This general plan may be 

 sufficiently indicated by describing the one 

 already drawn up for the Department of 

 Agriculture, which was the first to take it up. 



All scientific assistants in this and other 

 bureaus of the government, here referred to, 

 have recently been brought into the classified 

 service, as the clerical places had been be- 

 fore. To fill these positions it was neces- 

 sary to arrange a systematic plan of exami- 

 nations. Heretofore such of these places 

 as were included in the classified service 

 were filled by special examinations, held at 

 irregular intervals, at the request of the 

 Secretary of the Department. An exami- 

 nation was usually given for each particu- 

 lar position and an eligible list provided, 

 from which one person was taken. 



The objections to these special examina- 

 tions are numerous. The notices given by 

 the Civil Service Commission were neces- 

 sarily short, and did not become widely 

 known. The examination questions were 

 hastily prepared to secure one eligible to fit 

 a particular place, with the result that the 

 person certified for the position had too 



