I/O 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXI. No. 530 



greater the more severe the rigors of climate encountered in the 

 respective areas of territory from which statistical returns are 

 cited. Thus in the Gulf coast region the proportion of deaths 

 from consumption per one thousand deaths is about equal among 

 the whites and blacks ; but in the Middle Atlantic coast region the 

 difference of numbers shown is a very distinct one. 



In five specified areas of territory the exact proportion is as fol- 

 lows : — 



The Number of Deaths from Consumption in 1,000 Deaths frot)i 

 all Causes. 



Middle Atlantic Coast Region 

 Soutk Atlantic Coast Kegion . 



Gulf Coast Region 



The Interior Plateau 



The Ohio River Belt 



Thus, while in the first case there is a difference of 34.2, in tlie 

 third — the Gulf coast region — there is only a difference of a 

 little less than S ; while in the fifth case a difference of 87.4 in the 

 number of deaths per 1,000 from consumption exists. 



We have, therefore, it seems to the writer, sufficient grounds 

 upon which to advance the theory that the more patent condition 

 of the nasal canals in the colored race is largely responsible for 

 the more frequent occurrence in this race of lung disorders, as 

 compared with the white races, in the United States. 



Diseased conditions of the nasal canals in the dark race result- 

 ing in stenosis are especially rare; while, as every physician en- 

 gaged in the clinical study of these disorders will testify, a con- 

 dition of sten<isis is one of the most common, and among the first, 

 symptoms of disease involving this portion of the air tract in in- 

 dividuals of European descent. 



It is unnecessary to say that the inference must not be drawn 

 that a condition of stenosis is a safeguard against lung disorders. 

 Any condition of the nasal jiassages which results in or necessi- 

 tates mouth-breathing directly favors diseases of the lungs. 



When a condition of the nasal passages exists prohibiting tlie 

 free passage of air tt>rough them, the professional services of a 

 physician or surgeon should be sought to remedy this defect. 

 And since, as has been said, the nasal passages should be con- 

 sidered an integral part of the respiratory tract, the remedy should 

 constitute not merely the rendering of this organ patent, but 

 should also aim to restore it to a condition in which it may regain 

 the ability of performing its normal functions of moistening, of 

 warming, and of purifying, by freeing from irritating factors, 

 the inspired air. 



It is impossible to state how far the remedial effects of selection 

 or evohition are modifying the peculiarities of anatomical struct- 

 ure of the nasal passages of the black race in the United States. 



That these peculiarities become less prominent along with other 

 racial peculiarities of the descendants of the negro race is, how- 

 ever, very evident to the accurate observer. To the untrained 

 eye, the external characteristics of this organ are undergoing 

 modification, and to clinical observers a like change is noted in 

 the internal structure; but just how far this may be due to the 

 admixture of white blood, and how far to selective and develop- 

 mental modification, is beyond the power of the writer to esti- 

 mate. 



Professor W. S. Bayley of Colby University, Waterville, Me., 

 has collected into a volume, with a separate title-page and in- 

 dex, notes on mineralogy which have appeared during 1892 in 

 the American Naturalist. Professor Bayley is the editor of the 

 Department of Mineralogy and Petrography of the Naturalist, 

 and these notes summarize the papers that have.been published 

 during Jhe past year. The volume will prove useful to those 

 who wish to be posted on the literature of these two branches of 

 science. 



THE EFFECT ON THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM OF THE 

 INTRODUCTION OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES. ' 



BY W. L. POTEAT, WAKE FOREST COLLEGE, N.C. 



The natural sciences are at last firmly lodged in the college 

 curriculum. They are a recent importation. Their exact posi- 

 tion and relations are scarcely yet settled, and one may easily 

 fall into the mistake, on the one hand, of unwarranted precision 

 in setting forth their present status, and, on the other, of over- 

 confidence in predicting their ultimate influence upon the culture 

 of our higher institutions of learning. Our observation, however, 

 has probably extended over a period sufficiently long to yield 

 some reliable results, which at this stage of it may well be brought 

 together. 



I. What were the circumstances under which the sciences 

 gained a place in our educational machinery ? 



The college curriculum in its present form is the result of a 

 gradual growth from very ancient and rude beginnings. As in 

 a living organism, the successive modifications of the bulk and 

 complexity of its structure have been closely dependent upon its 

 environment. It responds with great sensitiveness to changes in 

 the world about it. Hence it comes to pass that the apparatus 

 and methods of culture of one period and race differ more or less 

 widel.y from those of all other periods and races. The history of 

 this development is inextricably intertwined with the progress of 

 external events. We must look, therefore, without, if we «ould 

 find the explanation of the last great modification of the means 

 of education. 



Of course, science in some form and to some extent had a place 

 in education long before the period which I now have in mind. 

 On the other hand, in some quarters it may be said to be still 

 fighting for recognition even at the present moment. Moreover, 

 periods glide insensibly into succeeding periods. There are no 

 sharp Upes in nature. For that reason there can be none in his- 

 tory. And yet, in order to avoid confusion and irksome modifi- 

 cations of every statement, I must be allowed to draw a somewhat 

 arbitrary line and consciously to foreshorten the stages of a con- 

 tinuous advance. 



For reasons which seem to me sufficient, I draw the line at 

 1859, the date of the publication of the ■' Origin of Spf-cies,"' and 

 characterize the 35 years following as the period of science in 

 education. It will, perhaps be agreed that no book in the do- 

 main of science, not even excepting the work of Bacon or Newton, 

 has produced an influence so far-reaching and so profound. This 

 dale I fix upon the more willingly, inasmuch as it marks the new 

 birth of the science of biology, which has affected all depart- 

 ments of human thought more deeply and permanently than all 

 the other sciences. And it I have chiefly in mind on the prisent 

 occasion. 



The characteristic feature of the intellectual life of the period 

 since the publication of the "Origin of Species" is the ferment 

 precipitated by its doctrine. And the education of the period, in 

 its spontaneous adjustment to external conditions, wears the 

 same unsettled complexion, with science for its dominant tone. 

 Tlie middle decades of this century are unrivalled in all the 

 thrilling history of the development of natural knowledge. The 

 •'Report on the Progress of Science" during the twenty years 

 next followi g the Revolution of 1789 and read before the Emperor 

 Narioleon in 1808, while it records some great names, contains 

 nothing to match the record of the forties and fifties. And the 

 ne.xt thirty years carried the wave of di'^covery and t;eneralization 

 but little higher. But about 1840 the spirit of scientific inquiry 

 grew more intense, laid under contribution a larger number of 

 rarely equipped minds, and pressed forward to attack the problems 

 of the physical universe with a degree of vigor, boldness, and 

 consecration which could not fail of brilliant achievements. Since 

 that epoch the application of machinery to industrial production 

 and to locomotion and intercommunication has revolutionized 

 our common lives and given us new standards of comfort and 

 activity. This revolution in the external aspects of modern civ- 

 ilization, it must be observed, " has been preceded, accompanied, 



' Abstract ot a paper read before the North Carolina College Association at 

 HaleigU, Feb. 25, 1893. 



