MATHEMATICS AT HARVARD.

THE number of the students who have this year elected any of the higher courses in mathematics is a discredit to the institution. Only five have elected Integral Calculus; the course in analytic mechanics is not taken at all; and no one of the other courses has more than three or four men in it. A department which gives advanced instruction to less than three per cent of each class would seem to be of doubtful use to a university. Mathematics has always been thought to give a fine mental training; but, if this training be accessible to so few men, all except the elementary courses might as well be given up, and some subject of use to a greater number be substituted.

The unpopularity of Mathematics can be largely accounted for by the excessive difficulty which it presents under the present system of instruction. In the first place, the lectures are not made clear enough. The instructors pass on from point to point with such rapidity that it is often impossible to take intelligible notes. The student has little or no opportunity to ask questions, and is left to work out obscure points by himself. So, until an examination reveals the fact, the instructor never knows whether the student understands the subject or not. Again, too much attention is given to the theoretical and too little to the practical side of the subject. It takes so long to work up the great number of principles contained in the lectures, that no time is left to learn their application. As a result, the difficulty of the study is greatly increased, and it becomes impossible to retain what it has cost so much labor to master. This lack of practical drill is the great fault of the whole system. Students hardly ever acquire any facility in the use of Mathematics. Men cannot be expected to elect a subject which is sure to bring them so much hard, dry work and such unsatisfactory results.

It is neither right nor necessary that this state of things should exist. Mathematics cannot be made an easy study; but its difficulty might be vastly diminished and its attractiveness greatly increased if the faults in the present method of teaching were remedied. To the honor of one instructor, it should be said that a reform has been introduced in some of the lower courses, - noticeably, in the course in Differential Calculus. Over sixty men are taking this course, and are actually enthusiastic over it. When before were Harvard students enthusiastic over Mathematics? If all the instructors would follow the example, and if they would remember that their lectures are delivered to young learners and not to experienced critics, Mathematics at Harvard might become, as it ought to be, a means of pleasant and valuable instruction to a large number of men.

K.