166 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 501. 



At the Johns Hopkins University, candi- 

 dates for the degree of doctor of medicine 

 must be college graduates or must give 

 evidence by examination that they possess 

 attainments indicated by a baccalaureate 

 degree in arts or science. Entering college 

 at eighteen, the student is twenty-one or 

 twenty-two years old on commencing this 

 course of professional study; he is, there- 

 fore, at least twenty-five or twenty-six at 

 the conclusion of the medical course. A 

 period of post-graduate instruction at home 

 or abroad is then often entered upon. It 

 is not unlikely that the example set by law 

 and medicine will erelong extend to other 

 professions. The undue length of the 

 course of study thus arranged has natu- 

 rally attracted attention. Recently Presi- 

 dent Murray Butler, in particular, has 

 commented on it and has proposed a fur- 

 ther curtailment of the course. There are 

 instances of such curtailment already. 

 Thus at Cleveland, Ohio, where the Adel- 

 bert College and the Case School of Ap- 

 plied Science exist side by side, each having 

 a complete four years' course, it has been 

 arranged to give a double degree at the 

 end of five years to those who have spent 

 three years in the college and then two 

 years in the school of applied science. 

 President Butler proposes that the B.A. 

 degree given at the end of a two years' 

 prescribed college course shall be made the 

 condition of entry to a professional course. 

 He would give the M.A. degree to those 

 who have followed an arts course during 

 four years. 



It is remarkable that a people supposed 

 to be practical, like the Americans, should 

 be prepared to devote so long a period to 

 study. I had many conversations on the 

 subject, in which I expressed my surprise; 

 but I must confess that, as a rule, my 

 friends seemed surprised that I should take 

 up such an attitude. I am almost led to 

 doubt whether, in matters of education. 



our American cousins may justly be re- 

 garded as a practical people. A course of 

 study prolonged to an age bordering on 

 thirty rather than twenty implies a most 

 serious limitation on the period during 

 which the individual exercises independ- 

 ence; it casts an improper burden on 

 parents; and it postpones the age of mar- 

 riage unduly. This last point especially 

 deserves some consideration. The follow- 

 ing table, given by President Eliot in his 

 report, records the number of surviving 

 children of members of six classes gradu- 

 ated from Harvard, from twenty-five to 

 thirty years after graduation : 



Class of 



Number of 

 A. B.'s. 



1872... 114 



1873 131 



1874 163 



1875 141 



1876 142 



1877 188 



881 



He points out that : 



Number 

 Married. 



82 



96 

 124 



90 

 106 

 136 

 634 



Number of 



Children 



SurYiviug, 1902 



165 



181 



247 



171 



212 



286 



1,262 



If it be assumed that the surviving children are 

 about one half males, it follows that the six 

 classes have by no means reproduced themselves; 

 that they have, indeed, fallen 28 per cent, short 

 of it. Twenty-eight per cent, of the members of 

 these classes are unmarried; and those who are 

 married have, on the average, only two surviving 

 children; so that the married pairs just reproduce 

 themselves on the average. 



It is impossible to overlook the signifi- 

 cance of such facts. Again, to quote Presi- 

 dent Eliot : 



The table suggests that the highly-educated part 

 of the American people does not increase the popu- 

 lation at all, but, on the contrary, fails to repro- 

 duce itself. If many other colleges and univer- 

 sities publish class reports analogous to the Har- 

 vard reports a competent statistician might estab- 

 lish from the assembled reports some interesting 

 and important conclusions. It is probable that 

 the regrettable result indicated in the table is due 

 in part to the late postponement of marriage on 

 the part of educated young men, a postponement 

 which the protracted education now prescribed for 



