Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/409

 ship and on negotiable paper. But he was busily collecting his cases on contracts, and in the autumn had the first advance-sheets ready for his course. Their publication, and an inkling of what they implied, fell on the legal community like a bolt from the blue. Teach law by cases instead of by textbooks? Preposterous! Also unheard-of! Some folks might practise law that way; no one could teach it! Besides, it would never do to bring the methods of the office into the lecture-room. Moreover, the cases were obscured by countless extraneous facts and confusing details. The law, pure and undefiled, was not in them. Now Co. Litt., or Justinian, if you liked…

Simultaneously with the publication of “Cases on Contracts” two other bombs fell into the ranks of the old guard. The scientific man at the head of the University put this other scientific man at the head of the Law School, creating for him the position of dean! And both these scientific men, exact investigators, proposed that the attainments of all students should be exactly investigated before being certified by a degree!