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EDITORIAL.

R. FRANK H. PALMER, who has been for over nine years associate editor of EDUCATION, has purchased my interests, and will hereafter conduct the magazine. It was ten years last November since my purchase of EDUCATION. It was a hazardous experiment for one who knew nothing about getting advertisements, was acquainted with few educational people, and had not a dollar to put into the magazine (after buying it) to push it. It was then losing ground, and one of the first words to meet my eye in an educational exchange ran thus, "EDUCATION is in the sear and yellow leaf." But the magazine did not die. Rather, the subscription lists have lengthened, the advertising patronage has increased, and the property is now worth several times what it was then. EDUCATION is probably the only high-class educational magazine in this country which has ever been able to afford support for its owners and not require the investment of any capital additional to the purchasing price. The list of magazines which has eaten into the capital of their owners is not short. That this has not been our case is due to much hard work and the loyal support of a noble and steadfast constituency. My heart has been gladdened by many kind words from subscribers and contributors who have come to our office during these years, and by very many kind messages from those whose faces we have never For all these kindly words, helpful suggestions or useful criticisms I feel deeply grateful. No one realizes more than myself that the high ideal toward which we have striven has by no means been reached, but we have tried to make a magazine which would be a help to those who read it. If we have been partly successful it is deep cause for thankfulness. EDUCATION now passes to Mr. Palmer with my best wishes for his success in carrying forward this good work. It is for him no untried venture, and we may feel sure that he will deserve and receive the increasing support of the leading educators of our country.

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FRANK H. KASSON.

FTER more than nine years' association with Mr. Frank H. Kasson in the arduous work of editing and publishing EDUCATION it has seemed best to him to withdraw, for purely personal reasons, and I have assumed charge of the enterprise as Managing Editor. It gives me pleasure here to testify to the zeal, single-mindedness and steadfast devotion to details which has always characterized the man

agement of the retiring Editor. This has had public recognition in the increasing business which has been steadily drawn to the magazine in all these years. I am personally indebted to Mr. Kasson for the many things I have learned in this long apprenticeship. All readers of EDUCATION will join me in wishing him God-speed wherever he may go and in whatsoever further service he may be engaged. It is with a due sense of humility that I take up the duties of the Managing Editorship. But the anxiety which one might naturally feel in assuming such a responsibility is greatly relieved by my surpassing good fortune in having secured the services of Dr. Richard G. Boone, Superintendent of Schools at Cincinnati, Ohio, as Editor. Dr. Boone will bring to the magazine the results of his ripe scholarship, his wide acquaintance with teachers and his familiarity with all educational affairs. He will cooperate with me from Cincinnati. The East and the West will thus be more completely covered, making EDUCATION even more distinctly than it has been in the past a national educational magazine. Following in the main the same conservative lines as heretofore, its scope will be somewhat broadened, and such new features will be introduced from time to time as may seem to be demanded by the spirit of progress in this great profession of pedagogy. I earnestly bespeak the kind consideration and good will of educators throughout the country.

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FRANK H. PALMER.

E heartily second the suggestion emanating from several different influential quarters, and ably considered editorially in the May number of our esteemed contemporary, the Educational Review, that the Bureau of Education should become an executive department, and the commissioner have a seat in the cabinet, with an adequate salary and with suitably paid assistants. This is a reform which is bound to come, and the sooner it comes the better.

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UPERINTENDENT SEAVER, of the Boston public schools, has just issued a report under the title of "School Document No. 3, 1901," which is a noteworthy contribution to the live subject of electives in the secondary schools. Mr. Seaver writes on this subject not only from the standpoint of a ripe scholar and trained theorist, but also from that of a long, practical experience in dealing with the facts and conditions as they exist in the schools to-day. He has thought out the subject very carefully, and gives us the results in a clear and convincing argument in favor of broadening the high school curriculum, and affording pupils the opportunity to elect, under

suitable supervision, such branches as will be of most value to them in after life. He points out the fact that three fourths of all the high school pupils in Boston now follow a course of study which is " supposed to afford a good general preparation for the duties of life." It is a common course for all, fixed in its details by the committee, and is not to be departed from save as they may enact. The superintendent would substitute a much broader scheme, giving larger liberty of choice on the part of the pupils, with the advice of teachers and guardians. There is a necessity for the change in the fact that so many new subjects have clamored for admission to the curriculum that its old, comparatively simple character has been destroyed, and at the same time the period given to school work has not been increased. No pupil can, therefore, be thorough in all branches. But rather than throw out any of the studies, all of which are important and useful, Mr. Seaver would give opportunity for each pupil to select such as will be most fitting and advantageous to his particular case. He would also reform the whole system of diplomas. He would have these show that in each branch of study pursued the pupil had achieved the required rank; and, also, they should show in what studies the holder has accomplished the results which are equal to the work of a complete course entitling him to graduation. It is contended that such an elective course would induce many to go to the high schools, who will not do so under a system which obliges them to give a large portion of their time to studies which neither they nor their guardians esteem really valuable and helpful. Mr. Seaver answers fully and carefully the stock objections to such an extension of the elective course to the high schools. His report is an exhaustive discussion of the subject, and should be carefully considered by all who are responsible for the government and work of the secondary schools.

THE NEW ERA IN MEDICAL EDUCATION.

THE UNIVERSITY OF

PENNSYLVANIA TO ERECT MEDICAL LABORATORIES ON A COMPLETE SCALE.

HE last quarter of the nineteenth century witnessed the conversion of the teaching and practice of medicine from a theoretical to a practical and demonstrative science. This momentous change, than which nothing more revolutionary and beneficent has been achieved in the history of the intellectual development of the race, has been the result of the establishment of laboratories in which research in medical science might be conducted. Such laboratories, first established in Germany, then in France, and now in all civilized and enlightened countries, have added a great wealth of facts to our knowledge of the structure and functions of the body, as well as having provided methods of preventing and combating disease that already have robbed many of the most direful of their chief terrors. Hitherto America has scarcely kept pace with foreign countries in the provision for scientific studies in medicine and in incentives to their prosecution. While this aspect of medical education has not been wholly disregarded in this country, the limitations placed upon institutions of learning by their inability to provide adequately out of their means for the sup port of laboratories, has had a detrimental effect upon the growth of American medicine. In other countries the national and municipal governments have done readily what in this country is left to private inclination and benefaction.

In view of these contingencies the decision of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania to proceed immediately with the erection of a new medical laboratory, which in completeness and equipment shall be without a rival in this or other countries, is the more praiseworthy and important. It will cost, exclusive of grounds and equipment, more than $500,000. Intended, as it is, to provide for the teaching of students and the carrying on of research in the subjects of physiology, pathology and pharmacodynamics, in which departments of medicine the greatest advances have been made in the past and may be predicted for the future, this event is one of national and not merely of local interest. When it is recalled how definite now is much of the knowledge of the laws of health, and to what extent the discovery of the uses and functions of the various organs, the precise nature of their possible lesions and derangements, and the definite action of remedial agents, has undoubtedly contributed to the relief of suffering and the prolongation of life, and how, in a few years, we have been taught that harmful micro-organisms-the so-called germs-are the causes of many diseases, and by what means their ravages may be combatted, the most enthusiastic forecasts for future discoveries in medicine may well fall short of the actual achievements. Hence it is that the undertaking the University of Pennsylvania has set for itself is one that must commend itself to all educators, to all students, and to all who have at heart the material advancement of the human race.