46 



8CIEWCIJ. 



[Vol. IX., No. 207 



examinatioDB. Prof. Arthur Cayley only mus- 

 tered two hearers to his twenty lectures. His 

 salary is £471. Michael Foster, professor of 

 physiology, has a salary of £800, and gives three 

 lectures a week to about one hundred and sixty 

 students. 



These are simply a few figures selected at ran- 

 dom, but they furnish food for reflection on more 

 than one point. "We find the salaries in almost 

 every case to be sufiicient to furnish a fair 

 living, and in some instances generous. But the 

 number of lectures falls considerably below that 

 which it is usual for a professor to give in this 

 country, and the classes are smaller. But it 

 is just these conditions that afford time and op- 

 portunity for original scientific research and liter- 

 ary activity. It is just here that the continental 

 universities, and in an almost if not quite equal 

 degree Oxford and Cambridge, have a great 

 and manifest advantage even over our largest 

 and best-endowed universities. We compel our 

 professors to teach and lecture so much, that 

 they cannot write as often and as wisely as their 

 abilities would justify them in doing. The ques- 

 tion, ' Why do you not write something ? ' which 

 is so often put to the already overworked pro- 

 fessor, is peculiarly galling. He wants to write 

 something, and feels that he can do it well ; but 

 the demands of his routine forbid. Even his 

 vacation season must be wholly spent in regaining 

 strength and vigor for the next year's work. To 

 a certain extent we are in this matter victims of 

 circumstances. Just at present no escape is per- 

 haps possible. 



But in some few instances at least, where finan- 

 cial conditions permit a better state of things, pub- 

 lic opinion and governing boards are to blame. 

 They value a professor according to the number 

 of lectures he delivers and the number of students 

 he attracts. They fail to perceive that scientific 

 research is the peculiar duty, and should be the 

 peculiar privilege, of the university professor. 

 Oxford and Cambridge professors do more original 

 work than our professors, simply because they 

 are given the time for it. To work an effective 

 reform in this matter will take some time. Our 

 universities must not only accumulate resources, 

 but public opinion and boards of trustees must 

 be educated to see that a professor is not being 

 permitted to do his full duty if he is compelled to 

 teach from ten to fifteen hours per week. 



Numerous state teachers' associations held 

 their annual meetings during the leisure period 

 afforded them by the time-honored two- weeks 

 Christmas vacation. It is almost invidious to 

 single out any one of the number for special com- 

 ment ; but the meeting of the New Jersey teachers 

 at Trenton was so large and enthusiastic, that 

 some notice should be taken of the great growth 

 of the idea that teaching is a profession that is 

 observable in that state. New Jersey teachers 

 have long borne an enviable reputation for ear- 

 nestness and ability, but the development of the 

 professional idea among them is of comparatively 

 recent date. The successful establishment of a 

 state reading-circle, which bow^ numbers nearly 

 two thousand members, is evidence of the gratify- 

 ing pr ogress that has been made ; and the attend- 

 ance at Trenton this year was such as to convince 

 the most sceptical that great good was being done. 

 As the result of the general acknowledgment that 

 teaching is a profession, we naturally expect to see 

 a sense of the homogeneity of all branches of 

 teaching arrived at. Every detail should interest 

 all, for it is a part of the one whole. The Trenton 

 meeting afforded abundant evidence that this fact 

 was appreciated. The programme, though long 

 and varied, commanded attention and interest 

 throughout. Papers were read or addresses given 

 on musical education, penmanship, the education 

 of the deaf and dumb, the status of the common 

 school, character-building, the Delsarte method of 

 expression, and the scientific treatment of educa- 

 tion. Varied as these topics were, both in subject 

 and in manner of treatment, they had a unity of 

 thought and purpose, and, what is quite as im- 

 portant, the audience of teachers appreciated the 

 fact. Meetings such as this was are an incalcula- 

 ble help to the earnest teacher, and we are glad 

 that they have taken their place as an essential 

 element in our educational organization. 



Archeological studies have taken a new start 

 at Harvard. At the quarter millennial celebration 

 last November, one of the foreign delegates who 

 was honored with the highest degree was Profes- 

 sor Lanciani of Rome, the director of the govern- 

 ment explorations in the 'eternal city.' Immedi- 

 ately after the celebration he began, in Sanders 

 theatre, a series of eleven lectures on Roman 

 archeology, which were very well attended, 

 though the same course was given at the same 

 time before the Lowell institute, in the neighbor- 

 ing city of Boston. This course was scarcely 



