102 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST... [VoL. XXXIII. 
be a few administrative members of the faculty covering the 
branches which did avail themselves of the laboratories, but 
more to act in an advisory capacity to the student than to teach 
him. The laboratory student while at work should know but 
‘one executive head, the chief of division in whose laboratory 
his work is done. Any division of authority here would be 
fatal. 
We would have then a small executive board, a small fac- 
ulty, and, as it naturally follows, small administrative expenses. 
Concentration of power in the hands of competent men is the 
soul of efficiency and the warranty of success. 
No funds should be sunk in pretentious buildings. A single 
building, with one large acoustically perfect hall, and as many 
smaller lecture rooms as seemed requisite, with offices for the 
archives, bursar, and administrative men, would be all that 
would be really necessary or useful, at.all events for some time 
to come. Under these circumstances the funds contributed 
could be almost wholly devoted to the true purpose of such a 
university, the production of highly trained experts, and the 
endowment of research. 
It is obvious that the interests of the government’s own work 
would permit of only a small number of students in any one 
laboratory, such a number, in each case, as the chief of division 
felt certain could be advantageously utilized and controlled. It 
would be impracticable to admit professors or classes into any 
laboratory except as rare visitors, such as occasionally come 
now. 
The laboratory student must come, if at all, as the regularly 
employed workers come, to keep the same hours, observe the 
same rules, and render to the chief the same obedience. For 
the class of men we are considering as possible students this 
would not be a grievous requirement. The method of instruc- 
tion would necessarily be that of Agassiz. Actual work on 
actual material, with results in sight from the first, and methods 
absorbed through contact and experience not merely experi- 
mental. I think there are few chiefs of division who would not 
welcome one or two well-trained enthusiastic students under 
such conditions. 
