384 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 16ft 



that body, in which the following vote is recom- 

 mended among others : "That, in the opinion of 

 the board of overseers, it is advisable to permit a 

 scientific substitute, in accordance with the terms 

 of this report, to be offered by applicants for ad- 

 mission to the college for either Latin or Greek, 

 one of these two languages always being required." 

 The terms here referred to are substantially that 

 the scientific substitute must be a real equivalent 

 of the old language course in amount of time 

 needed for it, and amount of training gained 

 from it, and that this demands more than a ' text- 

 book ' and ' memory ' study. The four members 

 of the committee who present this majority re- 

 port consider the scientific substitute above 

 referred to as recommended by the college faculty 

 an adequate one : a minority report from one 

 member still maintains the need of Greek for all. 

 Favorable action may therefore be expected from 

 the overseers. 



The great success of the free lectures re- 

 cently given at Columbia college by Professors 

 Boyesen and Butler — applications for tickets to 

 the second course numbering over two thousand — 

 emphasize a point in university work that has 

 been long and persistently overlooked ; that is, 

 the duty of the university toward the people at 

 large. Our colleges and universities depend, for 

 success and support, upon popular interest and 

 encouragement. They are continually in want of 

 money, and always desirous of attracting large 

 numbers of students. A large endowment, pro- 

 vided it be judiciously administered, and a large 

 body of students, constitute a successful uni- 

 versity. Of course, the test of numbers is of 

 itself of small value ; but the college with a 

 thousand students can create more enthusiasm, 

 exert a wider influence, as well as find work for 

 more instructors, than a college having only three 

 hundred names on its roll. The test of numbers, 

 then, stands not so much for itself as for what it 

 implies and represents. But these two conditions 

 of success — money and students — might be 

 made much easier of attainment were the rela- 

 tions between the universities and the people 

 closer than they now are. As a rule, the college 

 professor is looked up to as a useless sort of in- 

 dividual, who knows a great deal, but whose 

 knowledge is of a shadowy and unpractical 

 character. Our professors are too prone to give 

 encouragement to this opinion by shutting them- 

 selves up within the four walls of their studies 



and class-rooms, and producing no results of then 

 labors that to the non-collegiate man seem practi- 

 cal. Persistence in this isolation must weaken 

 the university, and cut it off from the very 

 sources of its support. The university should 

 have some message to the outside world that is of 

 a less formal and abstruse character than that 

 usually locked up in memoirs and the transac- 

 tions of learned societies. For this the lecture- 

 hall seems pre-eminently fitted, and through it 

 can the university find that contact with the peo- 

 ple that it so much needs. Especially in our large 

 cities, and by the staff of instructors in our larger 

 universities and colleges, is this plan feasible. 

 For years the Johns Hopkins university has given 

 courses of lectures on semi-popular subjects, and 

 with great success ; and now Columbia, in an in- 

 formal sort of way, is trying the same experi- 

 ment. Perhaps the great interest of the subjects 

 of the courses that have already been given there 

 — ' The tendencies of contemporary literature ' 

 and ' Education as a science ' — have had much 

 to do with the great success of the Columbia lec- 

 tures ; but we are fully convinced that a large 

 variety of subjects, both literary and scientific, 

 are capable of being treated by university pro- 

 fessors in a way that will not only attract large 

 audiences and be an educating influence among 

 the people, but also bring life and strength to the 

 university itself. 



THE APRIL MEETING OF THE NATIONAL 

 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 

 Thirty-nine members attended this year at the 

 spring meeting of the academy, and found Wash- 

 ington in its most charming vernal dress. If we 

 except the visit of courtesy made to the President 

 of the United States, the only social incident of 

 importance was a reception at which the mem- 

 bers of the academy met the members of the local 

 scientific societies for which Washington is justly 

 celebrated. 



The academy determined by vote not to con- 

 sider the nominations that had been made for 

 membership, so that no new members were 

 chosen. The expiration of Professor Agassiz' 

 term of office as foreign secretary created a va- 

 cancy ; and, as he declined re-election on account 

 of ili health, Prof. Wolcott Gibbs was selected to 

 succeed him. Gen. M. C. Meigs and Profs. S. F. 

 Baird, G. J. Brush, C. A. Young, E. C. Pickering, 

 and S. P. Langley were elected to the council, 

 and the remaining officers held over. 



During the past year the government has made 



