76 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 498. 



further to find the true cause. During the 

 past decade Germany has made tremendous 

 advances in the field of industries and man- 

 ufactures, just as . has the United States, 

 and the main reason for the increase in the 

 ntunber of students of technology in both 

 countries— the multiplication of this class 

 of students in our own country during the 

 past decade has been quite marked — is 

 found in the endeavor to supply a demand, 

 the prospective student carefully weighing 

 the chances of earning a livelihood in one 

 field or another. Wherever the supply 

 begins to exceed the demand, a tendency 

 toward reduction is immediately felt, as 

 witness the falling off in the number of 

 medical students in this country and else- 

 where during the past year, which in spite 

 of increased standards of admission and 

 other minor causes, must be attributed in 

 the main to the existing superabundance of 

 physicians. In other words, at the present 

 day when the professional schools are 

 making such headway at the expense of 

 the old general culture course, imiversity 

 attendance becomes more and more in- 

 fluenced by existing economic and indus- 

 trial conditions, especially in a country like 

 the United States, in which the practical 

 side of life is emphasized with such vigor, 

 and likewise in a country such as Germany, 

 which during the past few years has 

 adopted so many of our own methods in 

 the conduct of its industrial and commer- 

 cial affairs. While Germany can not be 

 said to have sacrificed any educational 

 ideals for this new movement, it has at all 

 events allowed the influence of things prac- 

 tical to be strongly felt. In connection 

 with this important question of the wide- 

 spread increase of applied science students 

 as affecting both Germany and the United 

 States, we might point out that in no in- 

 stance does a German school of technology 

 form a coherent part of a university proper, 

 as is so frequently the case in this country. 



And what is more, it seldom happens that 

 a German technological school is located in 

 a university town, and more than one such 

 school is never, under any circumstance, 

 allowed to exist in the same city, whereas 

 in the United States we revel in the luxury 

 of supporting several technological depart- 

 ments within hailing distance of one 

 another, to mention only Harvard Univer- 

 sity, the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology and Tufts College, for Boston, and 

 Columbia University, the Stevens Institute 

 of Technology and New York University, 

 for New York City, all of which institu- 

 tions offer courses in applied science. 



Nothing furnishes a more vivid illustra- 

 tion of the practical tendencies visible in 

 American education than the existence of 

 departments of commerce and accounts as 

 constituent parts of several of our lead- 

 ing institutions of learning, and the con- 

 templated establishment of a school of jour- 

 nalism in connection with Columbia Uni- 

 versity is but another phase of this constant 

 and growing endeavor to enlarge the field 

 of legitimate university activity in prac- 

 tical directions. 



Summarizing briefly, we have found that 

 both in Germany and in the United States 

 wonderful progress has been made in re- 

 cent years in the spread of higher educa- 

 tion, and this development may be regarded 

 as a specific manifestation of the general 

 material prosperity which has character- 

 ized the life of both countries during the 

 past thirty years. The amazing develop- 

 ment of the industrial activities of both 

 nations has found a decided reflection in 

 the rapid increase in the enrollments of the 

 schools of technology and the university 

 faculties of applied science, an increase far 

 above the normal and illustrative of the 

 modern striving to bring education into 

 closer and closer accord with the living 

 issues and problems of the day. And no 

 harm will result from this tendency, pro- 



