Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/382

378 one hand, and to the professional school, on the other, is a problem that may ultimately be solved by the elimination of the old-fashioned college. The better high schools overlap the first two years of the weaker colleges, and the last two years of the college are often given in part to specialized or professional studies. Only one medical student in twelve holds a bachelor's degree. Our college is regarded as a distinctly American institution and is venerated as such. When there were but few high schools and when professional schools were private ventures, the college was the chief factor in education and culture. It is, however, now struggling for its existence, and has become so hybridized and diversified that there is no typical college.

The differences of opinion among the college administrators who took part in the discussion at Boston were extreme. President Eliot has consistently urged a three-year college course, beginning at the age of eighteen, consisting of elective studies and required for the professional schools. Dean West said that three years might be quite long enough for electives, but that we should have a four-year course composed of 'disciplinary' studies. President Harper also favors four years, but allows a sliding scale. President Butler prefers a two-year course for students preparing for the professions, beginning at the age of sixteen or seventeen. All the college officers who spoke at Boston agree, however, that the college course must be prerequisite to the professional schools, at least to the better ones. None of them seemed to regard it as possible that the distinction between 'cultural' and useful studies is artificial. Certainly none of them suggested that the student should be set free to do his work, and the baccalaureate degree be given him on his twenty first birthday.

received in England and announced by the president of the Royal Geographical Society and others make it possible to form a reasonably correct estimate of the work accomplished by the British Antarctic Expedition and its present condition. The Morning, the relief ship under the command of Captain Colbeck, sighted the Discovery on January 23, but owing to the ice pack was not able to approach nearer to it than a distance of five miles. The Morning, having transferred the stores, left the ice on March 2, when there was already danger that she would become shut in. At this time it was hoped that the Discovery might be released from the ice, but this evidently proved impossible, as the ship would have reached New Zealand before this. We reproduce from the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society a sketch showing the position of the Discovery, the configuration of the land and the routes taken by the expeditions. It will be seen that the ice line was considerably further north in 1903 than in 1902, and unless it retreats in 1904, the Discovery must be abandoned. It is of course necessary under these circumstances to send a relief expedition again next year, and efforts are being made to collect money for this purpose. The government has been applied to for assistance, and the premier in the House of Commons recently, while implying that assistance would be granted, rather severely blamed the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society for not foreseeing this need.

The most dramatic result of the expedition was reaching the point furthest south, at latitude 82° 17′, from which land could be seen as far south as 83° 30′, with mountain ranges and peaks as high as 14,000 feet. The trip was made by Captain Scott, accompanied by Lieutenant Shackleton