SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 127. 



cannot become one. It would be vain for it to 

 attempt to duplicate the outfit of a modern 

 university. 



Its mission and its opportunity is to utilize the 

 existing mechanism of the scientific departments 

 of all the different American universities. In 

 some sense also it may coordinate them and 

 unite them. 



At present, at least, there seems to be no 

 place for a National University at Washington, 

 certainly not in the sense that another univer- 

 sity should be added to those that now exist 

 in the country, like them or only a little better 

 than any one of them. 



By coordinating and uniting what now exists, 

 the Smithsonian Institution may well furnish, at 

 least in reference to the aggressive scientific 

 work of the country, the beginnings of such a 

 National University as is really needed. 



I think it would be practically possible to 

 make a beginning in this direction in the fol- 

 lowing way : 



1. Establish and recognize a certain number 

 of scientific departments, say fifteen at the 

 start. Let all these be recognized as constitu- 

 tive parts of the Institution. 



2. Appoint, by careful selection, a committee 

 of three men, the most eminent in their lines to 

 be found in the country, to represent each de- 

 partment. (This the least essential part of my 

 suggestions.) 



3. Make one man the chairman and assign 

 him a salary appropriate to the work expected 

 of him. 



4. Let these men, the chairmen, remain, if so 

 already, professors in active service in the uni- 

 versities where they belong. Secure for them, 

 from these universities, the right to spend a cer- 

 tain portion of each year at Washington, say 

 six to ten weeks, in some cases 'perhaps much 

 less. Let their salaries be additional to their 

 university salaries, in case their universities 

 consent to allow them the time as a vacation ; 

 otherwise make these salaries a portion of their 

 university salaries. The latter course may be 

 necessary iu cases where a man is regularly ab- 

 sent from his university work as much as one- 

 third of the university year. This plan would 

 be of advantage to the men, because of the op- 

 jvortunity and the prestige ; to their universities. 



because of the advantage it would be to the men 

 themselves ; to the Institution, because of the 

 work they would do, better and larger than the 

 Institution could secure from men whose entire 

 services it would be able to obtain. 



5. Each man put in charge of a department 

 would do such work in upbuilding and helping 

 his department as he, in consultation with his 

 committee, found practical and advantageous to 

 do. Some could devote themselves to the col- 

 lections ; some would lecture or arrange courses 

 of lectures ; some would organize, stimulate and 

 assist work in their departments going on in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country. Some would use 

 the opportunity to interest the National Gov- 

 ernment in enterprise akin to their work, and 

 to influence the conduct of those already under- 

 taken. 



This is a suggestion of a way to begin what 

 would, I believe, develop into something of 

 great use to the country, and would furnish a 

 true and fit utilization of the existence of the 

 Institution in its present habitat and with its 

 present conditions. 



Sincerely yours, 



Bbnj. Ide Wheeler. 



SCIENTIFIC LITEBATURE. 

 Outlines of Psychology. By Wilhelm Wundt. 

 Translated by Charles Hubbard Judd. 

 Leipzig, Wilhelm Engelmann. 1897. 8vo, 

 pp. 342. 

 An Outline of Psychology. By Edward Brad- 

 ford TiTCHENEE. New York, The Mac- 

 millan Company. 1897. 8vo, pp. 852. 

 The fundamental aim and interest in both 

 these treatises is the instructional one ; while 

 by no means limited to this phase of utility, the 

 volumes are primary text-books and may be 

 judged by their fitness to increase the efficiency 

 and attractiveness of the teaching of psy- 

 chology. Such a verdict would be much easier 

 to reach were there a more complete agree- 

 ment as to the content or the methods, the 

 order of exposition or the perspective of im- 

 portance, of the several trends of investigation 

 that lend diversity as well as frequent confusion 

 to psychological discussions. But the ' psy- 

 chologies ' are unmistakably converging both 

 in matter and manner, and it is becoming less 



