May 25, 190O.] 



SCIENCE. 



807 



in seats of learning to be guarded carefully 

 as a pillar of the intellectual universe. 



But the student, who has a thorough 

 knowledge of French and German as well 

 as of his own language, still has access 

 through translations to the thoughts of 

 antiquity, while he has vastly more. He 

 has access to the best thoughts of modern 

 times, to the works of authors in all 

 branches of knowledge during this, the age 

 not only of greatest intellectual activity 

 but also of the most accurate investigation. 

 If he be a professional man, he can keep 

 himself abreast with advance ; if he have 

 turned aside to commerce, be finds himself 

 equipped for the broader fields ; in any case 

 without early training in those languages, 

 he is crippled and is compelled to learn 

 them amid the pressure of other duties. 

 Those languages he must know — without 

 them, he cannot gain admission to graduate 

 schools of our stronger universities. They 

 are as essential as was Latin a century ago 

 and for the same reason — they are, so to 

 speak the tools of trade. In philosophy, 

 law, theology and the various branches of 

 science, a man is at more than serious dis- 

 advantage without them. 



In all this, there is no denial that a 

 knowledge of Greek and Latin is useful ; 

 but that is wholly aside from the issue, 

 which is, whether the gains from the study 

 of classical languages are such as to justify 

 the demand that it retain the very promi- 

 nent place in the curriculum. The utility 

 of some acquaintance with Latin and Greek 

 is beyond dispute ; naturalists employ terms 

 derived from those languages ; astronomers 

 and chemists make heavy drafts on mythol- 

 ogy, while relics of old practice in law and 

 medicine remain embalmed in Latin terms 

 and phrases. Bat the knowledge of Greek 

 and Latin necessary to the physician, 

 clergyman or lawyer is not great in quan- 

 tity ; if it were, most of the college graduates 

 who have taken up those professions would 



feel themselves sadly handicapped. Indeed, 

 a ' smattering ' is all that very many en- 

 ergetic writers demand. 



Elementary courses in Hebrew, Arabic, 

 Assyrian, Italian and Spanish are given in 

 all of our larger institutions and, in many, 

 the opportunity is still afforded for the be- 

 ginner in French and German. Similar 

 courses, as options, ought to be ofi'ered in 

 Latin and Greek, planned to give a good 

 knowledge of the vocabulary and to ac- 

 quaint the student with that something 

 which we are accustomed to call the ' gen- 

 ius ' of the language. A faithful student, 

 with an object in view, should be able in 

 two years to read, with comparative ease, 

 any ordinary work in either of those lan- 

 guages. Certainly, no one will assert that 

 Latin and Greek are more difiBcult than 

 German or that the idioms are more per- 

 plexing than those of Spanish. Scientific 

 men understand this, for there are doubt- 

 less few who have not been compelled to 

 acquire at short notice a working knowl- 

 edge of an additional language in order to 

 prosecute an investigation already begun. 



When our college curricula shall have 

 been properly adjusted, the graduate will 

 have received the polish obtained by study 

 of language and literature, the logical mode 

 of thought obtained by study of mathe- 

 matics, the knowledge, strength and judi- 

 cial tendency obtained by study of the in- 

 ductive sciences; while in addition, he will 

 have the means to utilize his gains in the 

 profession or calling which has been in 

 view during the later years of bis college 

 life. John J. Stevenson. 



THE BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 

 OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



In 1881 Professor R. P. Whitfield saw 

 that the scientific needs, of this Museum, 

 its reputation amongst kindred institutions 

 in the world, and its proper recognition of 

 its natural responsibility to the world of 



