574 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 354. 



logical Departments, etc. In some states where 

 these institutions have merged into or connected 

 themselves with State Universities, many more 

 departments are present. The institutions 

 there have a larger significance, and instead of 

 terming the various lines of work as depart- 

 ments, they are designated as Colleges. Cor- 

 nell Univei-sity, for example, is made up of the 

 Colleges of Agriculture, Law, Medicine, Engi- 

 neering, etc. Each college goes to make up the 

 university and each department goes to make 

 up a college. 



There seems to have been a tendency in the 

 evolution of the Colleges of Law, Medicine, 

 Engineering, etc., to recognize the fact that to 

 have just one chair, designated as that of law, 

 medicine or engineering, was to all purposes of 

 reasoning ambiguous. The titles of professor 

 of law, professor of medicine or professor of 

 engineering therefore are not commonly used. 

 In most cases the title designates explicitly the 

 particular department, as, in law, professor of 

 equity jurisprudence and law of real prop- 

 erty, professor of commercial law, etc., in 

 medicine, professor of clinical medicine, pro- 

 fessor of dermatology, etc., in engineering, 

 professor of mechanical, electrical, civil, 

 marine, mining, etc., engineering. 



The School or College of Agriculture seems to 

 be alone in not having abandoned a custom long 

 since recognized by others as obsolete. The 

 title of ' professor of agriculture' is not explicit 

 enough. Where in years past one man taught 

 everything of economic importance in regard to 

 plants and animals, to-day there are a number of 

 well-defined departments. Instead of the pro- 

 fessor of agriculture, we have the professor of 

 agronomy, soil physics, animal industry, hor- 

 ticulture, forestry, etc. 



In the modern institution, as in the Univer- 

 sity of Illinois, we find no, professor of agricul- 

 ture and it is readily seen that there is little 

 need for such. It is believed that, in the 

 future, when the fact of its misapplication is 

 thouroughly understood, this custom, now so 

 common, will go out of use. 



Frank Wm. Eane. 



The New Hampshire College, 

 Department OF Horticul- 

 ture AND Forestry. 



THE WASHINGTON MEMORIAL INSTITUTION AND 

 A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 



The article by the Hon. John W. Hoyt, chair- 

 man of the National University Committee, pub- 

 lished in the issue of Science for last week, may 

 properly be the subject of a few words of com- 

 ment from one who would welcome the estab- 

 lishment of a University of the United States 

 and who at the same time regards the Wash- 

 ington Memorial Institution as the most im- 

 portant movement in this direction that is 

 feasible at the present time. I am the more 

 inclined to make these comments because Dr. 

 Hoyt quotes from an article written by me 

 four or five years ago without, as it ^eems to 

 me, giving its full intention. I am quoted, for 

 example, as remarking that ' all the argu- 

 ments which have been urged against the 

 establishment of a national university turn out 

 to be in its favor.' The passage from which 

 these words are taken reads as follows : 



From a theoretical point of view it would seem 

 that all the arguments which have been urged against 

 the establishment of a national university turn out to 

 be in its favor. The cost, the incompetence of govern- 

 ment and the claim that existing universities suffice 

 are, however, practical difficulties which we do not 

 underestimate. Indeed, these are so evident that 

 we should regard it as useless to advocate the imme- 

 diate establishment of a great national university. 

 We rather hope for a gradual growth from the na- 

 tional institutions already existing at Washington. 

 We have there great libraries, museums and labora- 

 tories, able investigators engaged in advancing pure 

 and applied science, and younger men learning from 

 them the methods of research. These are the es- 

 sentials of a university. 



The establishment of the Washington Me- 

 morial Institution seems to be a most happy 

 compromise between those who oppose and 

 those who advocate the immediate establish- 

 ment of a national university. Dr. Hoyt in 

 criticising this institution probably does not rep- 

 resent the majority of the committee of which 

 he is chairman. President Harper was chair- 

 man of the committee of the National Council 

 of Education which endorsed the institution, 

 and he doubtless regards it as the beginning of 

 a national university. Other members of the 

 committee may wish to confine the functions. of 

 the institution to those at present outlined, but 

 time and the course of events will, in my opin- 

 ion, prove irresistible forces. The best and 



