January 12, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



61 



consideration is not the ethical relation of 

 the university to research, since its obliga- 

 tions in the matter are invariable and un- 

 deaiable, but rather one of the practicabil- 

 . ity and pedagogical expediency of carrying 

 out this obligation. 



Can the facilities of a university be used 

 to advantage in the furtherance of research, 

 and what influence does effort of this char- 

 acter exert upon its pedagogical functions ? 



The most prominent feature in the ma- 

 jority of our universities under their present 

 organization is undoubtedly their academic 

 department, in vphich the older, often mis- 

 called the elementary, parts of the subjects 

 are presented in a manner vi'hich absorbs 

 the greater proportion of the facilities of the 

 institution. Tlie intent of such instruction 

 is most commendable in its thoroughness 

 and honesty of purpose, but here the good 

 and honest intention, as with many others 

 blindly followed, leads to a most iniquitous 

 ending. ISTo university of standing fills its 

 chairs with men who are not prominent by 

 the results of their investigations and ac- 

 tive in their pi-esent prosecution. Having 

 proceeded so far wisely and well, the ad- 

 ministration then falters in its high purpose, 

 and permits, rather insists that practically 

 all of the energy .of its members should be 

 expended in the more or less mechanical 

 duties attendant upon elementary instruc- 

 tion, especially in natural sciences, and 

 fails entirely to provide either opportunity 

 or facilities for the development of research 

 work and its use in the presentation of the 

 subjects. Such failure may be due to finan- 

 cial disability, though administrative lapses 

 of judgment are not unknown or infrequent. 

 In either case it is unfair and unfortunate 

 to such a degree as to stretch the concep- 

 tion of honesty to its utmost limits, and to 

 make the name of the university a travesty. 

 Such non-appreciation of the actual impor- 

 tance of investigation is most conducive to 

 stagnation, or indeed it may be taken as a 



symptom of it, and its deadening, thwarting 

 effect is doing more to retard the develop- 

 ment of the American university than any 

 other one cause. 



The presentation of any subject by an in- 

 structor who is not participating in its de- 

 velopment will lack freshness of treatment, 

 sharp distinctions between established and 

 speculative deductions, will be more or less 

 dogmatic, and will fall far short of its pos- 

 sible value, both for culture work and pro- 

 fessional training. To this sweeping state- 

 ment I am bound to add that there are a 

 few teachers, not investigators, whose ap- 

 parent success in instruction is due to an 

 enduring and contagious enthusiasm which 

 implants a permanent interest in a subject, 

 in the mind of a student, which may lead 

 him to follow it later and elsewhere to a 

 more orderly and natural attack, from 

 which he will gain a proper perspective for 

 the first time. The arousing of enthusiasm 

 and the imparting of information do not 

 constitute the highest form of instruction 

 however, and the teacher who does no more, 

 fails not only in his special office, but also 

 in his duty to bear a share in carrying out 

 the obligations of the institution to society. 



So far as investigation as a method of 

 teaching is concerned, it is to be said that 

 the acquisition and systematization of infor- 

 mation gained in this manner, have a value 

 both for culture and professional training 

 lacking in any other method. It is a pro- 

 cedure by which the student is led to grasp 

 the chief concepts included in a subject, the 

 principles to be deduced from their orderly 

 arrangement, to trace the manner in which 

 every increment of new fact or advanced 

 thought has been accumulated, and to fol- 

 low the technique of this development ia 

 making his own acquaintance with the 

 subject in its known aspects. So far he 

 has been an investigator merely as a matter 

 of discipline. Later he may project his 

 activities beyond the boundaries of the 



