168 



SCIENCE. 



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



and, therefore, by a spirit of doubt. One 

 great reason of failure is that nearly all 

 our teaching is dogmatic. To use Tenny- 

 son's words:— 



There lives more faith in honest doubt, 

 Believe me, than in half the creeds. 



We need to introduce broader and more 

 philosophical conceptions into our educa- 

 tional practise; it is almost impossible to 

 keep pace with the growth of knowledge 

 and absurd to add perpetually to the 

 burden imposed upon the student. More- 

 over, it is unnecessary. If more attention 

 were paid to teaching principles and their 

 application, less to mere facts, many of the 

 difficulties with which the student's path is 

 now strewn would disappear and he would 

 do effective work; our higher education is 

 unfortunately afBicted with the disease of 

 fact-megalomania; if the meaning of one 

 tenth of the facts we now lay before the 

 student were properly taught, the remain- 

 ing nine tenths might safely be jettisoned. 



As a very large number of American 

 teachers have studied in Germany and the 

 teaching is often based on German models, 

 it is remarkable that the university system 

 should bear so little resemblance to that of 

 Germany. As a rule, far more routine 

 work is done and far less attention is paid 

 to research work than in Germany. At 

 Cornell University, for example, although 

 the course laid down for students of chem- 

 istry covers four years, no thesis work is 

 demanded. At the Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity, on the other hand, the graduate 

 student who desires to take the Ph.D. de- 

 gree follows a course almost precisely sim- 

 ilar to the German coi^rse; but this comes 

 after a two years' graduate course, which 

 has no equivalent in the German system. 

 Of late years, however, much attention has 

 been given to research work in America; 

 still, it is not yet rated at its proper value 

 and those who are engaged in the work by 

 no means enjoy the esteem they deserve on 



that account. Professor Richards, of Har- 

 vard, for example, a chemist of brilliant 

 originality as well as an extraordinarily 

 exact worker, was not appreciated by his 

 university until after he had been 'called' 

 to Gottingen. Work which has no com- 

 mercial aim or value iS not easily recog- 

 nized as important. As the spirit of in- 

 quiry is the mainspring of progress, its 

 cultivation should be a first charge on the 

 bank of education. Germany has long 

 recognized this to be the case, but neither 

 in the United States nor here does such a 

 conclusion yet meet with acceptance. As 

 the prizes offered by industrial enterprise 

 are most alluring, it is essential that more 

 active measures should be taken to develop 

 the capacity for research, so that a larger 

 supply of competent investigators should 

 be forthcoming. And such men are sorely 

 needed to act as leaders in every grade of 

 education. 



Science in the Service of the State. — The 

 most striking illustrations of American or- 

 ganizing ability are to be met with at Wash- 

 ington. So far as I am aware, there is 

 nothing anywhere to compare with the way 

 in -which science is being utilized in the 

 service of the state by the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, which is located in the 

 capital. The origin and development of 

 this department are sketched in a separate 

 bulletin published in 1898. It was estab- 

 lished by an act of congress approved by 

 President Lincoln, May 15, 1862. Up to 

 July 1, 1897, it cost, all told, $26,915,988, 

 or less than $500,000 a year. 



The department now comprises the fol- 

 lowing branches: Office of the secretary, 

 the weather bureau, bureau of animal in- 

 dustry, bureau of plant industry, bureau 

 of forestry, bureau of chemistry, bureau of 

 soils, bureau of statistics, division of ento- 

 mology, division of biological survey, divi- 

 sion of accounts and disbursements, divi- 

 sion of publications, office of experimental 



