teaching of the biological sciences laid upon personal and institutional hygiene and, in particular, upon sex-hygiene and eugenics.

10. That it is the sense of this conference that the Council of Religious Education be requested to call another such conference as soon as may seem advisable, and that at such conference the relation of the content of the curriculum to the practical life of the pupil receive special consideration.

UNIQUE PLAN FOR DRAFTING A UNIVERSITY CONSTITUTION. The following, sent to us by the secretary of the University of Illinois, will be of interest in view of the widely recognized fact that large universities are no longer mere circles of learning, but also great business organizations and industrial plants.

Dr. Edmund J. James, President of the University of Illinois, has devised and put into operation a unique plan for working out an ideal constitution for the modern university. European universities rest as a rule upon ancient characters carefully drawn up and promulgated by king or pope, under which elaborate codes of university statutes have been developed by the members of the faculty or by the alumni of the university, or by a system of co-operation between these bodies, such statutes having been often repealed or modified by executive order or governmental statute. In this country, while such institutions have usually been chartered by the state, the charter has contained simply a general grant of power, and under this a scheme has been worked out usually by a board of trustees under which power has been distributed, often in a very informal way, among the trustees, faculties, students, alumni, etc., without in any case having resulted in as careful university codes as are found in the older countries. The wonderfully rapid growth of the modern university has burst the bonds of these ancient charters, the outcome resembling in its results the pouring of new wine into old bottles. The result has been that the university machinery, grown somewhat rusty, never perhaps equal to its new task, has creaked and groaned at times in a very marked way. Much dissatisfaction has shown itself among academic men, among trustees, on the part of the public, and on the part of the legislatures, with the outcome of the university organization. Many articles and some books have been written on the subject in the past few years, without really having advanced very much the general cause.

President James has asked the senate of the University of Illinois, a body composed of all the professors in the university, to appoint a committee to draft a university constitution, setting forth in detail the constitution of the university, and marking off the legitimate authority which should be given to such an institution by the legislature, defining the relations between the legislature and the state administration on the one hand and the university on the other,

and dividing up and marking off the functions of trustees, faculties, students and alumni. Among the questions which would have to be considered by such a committee and find a formulation in the constitution or by-laws of the institution would be the powers of the trustees of the university, the function and power of the president of the university, the duties of the deans, the general division of the university itself into faculties, the authority of the individual faculties over against each other, and toward the entire university organization. The authority of the professor in his own department; his tenure of office; his independence of investigation and teaching, freedom of speech, pension system, salary schedule, etc; method of determining the budget, powers of discipline of faculties over their own members and over their students; are all subjects which would call for consideration in such a university constitutional convention. It is proposed to submit this constitution, after it is drafted by the committee, to a full discussion, first in the senate, and then in the entire university faculty, and finally, after working it out in detail, to submit it to the board of trustees, and after their modifications, to put it up to the legislature for enactment into positive law. The experiment is unique and it will be followed with much interest.

AFTER THE SALOON,-WHAT? After the saloon has been run out of town, what then? What shall take its place? Is some substitute for the saloon needed? The Sunday School Times runs an interesting discussion of this question which is now a practical one for so many millions of American citizens. A prominent Colorado man declares that any community that has banished the saloon needs to put in vigorous substitutes for it, or the last state of that place will be worse than the first. Another writer comes back with the retort that "a city no more needs a substitute for the saloon than we shall need a substitute for Satan in the millennium." The superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League of America sums the question up in a virile article of unsparing convictions. He brings the reader squarely up to the unexpected conclusion that a substitute for the saloon really means a substitute for the church.

Foreign Notes

An Experiment in Vocational Training-England affords important lessons in the difficult art of getting men of affairs to take vital interest in school matters. A notable example of such interest is afforded by Alderman Benjamin Broadbent of Huddersfield. In a non-professional capacity, Mr. Broadbent took part in the Paris Congress on school hygiene, contributing a paper on "The Teaching of Infant Rearing to Mistresses and Pupils," which attracted quite as much attention as the contributions of recognized specialists. He had before him the example of an experiment made in his own town which has enjoyed his hearty support. A brief course of lessons on the care of infants has been introduced into the schools under the direction of a competent woman, Mrs. Watson, who has just prepared for general distribution a penny pamphlet giving a simple course of five lessons on her specialty. This pamphlet has an introduction by Alderman Broadbent in which he says:

"There are some elementary and simple truths that all girls ought to know about babies. In former and less complex days all girls knew, more or less well, by home experience and from personal contact, how to feed and clothe babies, and how to keep them clean. Under modern conditions girls are cut off by compulsory attendance at school from almost all opportunity of learning these simple lessons at the age when they are most easily and unconsciously learnt. I have no hesitation in saying that in my opinion the proper time to teach girls about babies is from 10 to 13 years of age. This may be considered open to question, but it would be out of place to enter upon controversy here. I merely say that there are physiological and philosophical reasons for this opinion and that it is confirmed by observation and experience. Hitherto there has been no recognition in our education system of the fact that motherhood is the most usual, as well as the most useful sphere for women, and there has been no provision for supplying the lack of home training and instruction; hence the appalling state of ignorance in which most mothers of today find themselves when their first child is born. We ought in one way or another, to make it impossible for the mothers of the future to grow up to a like fate. It is a difficult matter to prepare girls for motherhood without endangering the freshness and sweetness of their innocence, but it has always seemed to me that it should not be beyond the power of a woman to do this. I think that in this little book there is fulfilled this delicate

task. The lessons seem to me to contain all that a girl ought to know about babies and nothing that a girl ought not to know. In my humble judgment it is complete. It is admirable in tone and expression, and in all respects meets my own views of what such a book should be a message from the motherheart of an experienced woman to the unconscious motherheart of an innocent girl."

Students in Germany.-The mooted question of classics versus science, or of the ancient humanities versus modern science, as a basis of school organization, appears to have reached a more satisfactory settlement in Germany than in any other country. The distribution of students in the various classes of secondary schools in Prussia in 1910, is reported as follows: gymnasia, 106,794; real gymnasia, 68,085; ober realschulen, 68,085. The majority of university students come up from the gymnasia, but the equivalence accorded to the modern school is gradually introducing another class of students with good results. In the law faculty, for instance, only students from the gymnasia are prepared for the courses in Roman law, but for other specialties now recognized in that faculty, such as laws governing inventions, commercial law, etc., modern languages and scientific studies are a better preparation.

The increasing number of women, students in the Prussian universities is noticeable: in the summer semester of 1909, 1,464 women were registered; in 1910, the total was 2,035. Deducting 701 who were hearers only, the remaining 1,334 were distributed as follows: theology, 5; law, 9; medicine, 202; philosophy (letters and sciences), 1,118.

A Provincial University of France.-The faculty of letters of the University of Grenoble celebrated its centennial on the 17th of March, dating its origin from the imperial decree by which it was created. In October, 1815, upon the restoration of the Bourbons, the faculty was suppressed, and was not restored until 1847. This faculty was one of the first to avail itself of the free development provided for by the university law of 1896, and has since achieved wide distinction by its local adaptations. These pertain particularly to the modern languages, which form an organized section, side by side, with the old classical section. French language and literature occupies the place of honor in the group, German comes next, as if it were the first foreign language for which provision was made; English is important for commercial reasons, and Italian, which completes the group, for historic and geographic considerations. This section of foreign languages has attracted companies of students from other countries and Grenoble has become after Paris, their chief resort. As a center of instruction in French and Italian, the university is unrivalled. The students in the latter language divide their time under the charge

of a university tutor, between Grenoble and Florence. The number of matriculated students in the faculty in 1908 was 103; in 1910 it increased to 500. In addition there were last year, 1,104 students in the vocation courses.

Ferment in Russia.-Russia has furnished some important lessons to the world in respect to technical education. It was indeed one of the first nations to develop and organize a complete system of technical training. Recent lessons from this troubled empire carry little but suggestions of what to avoid. The university centers are again in a ferment. According to the London Times, it is estimated that not less than 1,500 students have been arrested during the winter, and of these 630 have been transported, the majority of them to the sub-Arctic provinces of Siberia. Their comrades at home have struck, and now demand the return of the exiles and the annulment of the decree forbidding meetings within the university precincts. The students persist in obstructing lectures and defy the police. The spirit is rampant in the Woman's university (St. Petersburg) in spite of warnings, and the university council have requested the government to close the institution till autumn.

Race Education.-The South African Native Races Committee has made a strong appeal to the English public for £10,000 ($50,000) to complete the endowment fund of £50,000 ($250,000) which is required for the establishment of a South African Native College. The need for such a college is pressing on account of the increasing interest shown by the natives in the education of their children. Since 1850 the enrollment in native schools has increased twenty-fold, but for anything beyond elementary instruction, aspiring pupils are compelled to go to other countries.

For a model instance of successful education for natives in a land under foreign rule, New Zealand bears the palm. Maori children are admitted to the ordinary primary schools, but in addition, native schools are maintained for them in their own villages. These number 94, with an enrollment of 4,218, on which an average attendance of 85 per cent. is maintained. There are also nine private secondary schools for Maori boys or girls, in which the government provides a number of free places open to children of unusual promise. Arrangements have been made by which boys holding free scholarships may receive practical training in farming. A scheme has also been matured for training Maori girls as nurses.

A. T. S.