“The time in which we live is full of questions of the deepest moment. There has been during the century just ending the greatest material development ever seen. The condition of the average man has been raised higher than before, and wealth has been piled up beyond the wildest fancy of romance. We have built up a vast social and industrial system, and have carried civilization to the highest point it has ever touched. That system and that civilization are on trial. Grave doubts and perils beset them. Everywhere to-day there is an ominous spirit of unrest. Everywhere is a feeling that all is not well, when health abounds, and none the less dire poverty ranges by its side, when the land is not fully populated and yet the number of unemployed reaches to the millions. I believe we can deal with these doubts and rents successfully, if we will but set ourselves to the great task as we have to the trials and dangers of the past. But the solution will tax to the utmost all the wisdom and courage and learning that the country can provide. What are our universities, with their liberal education to play in the history that is now making and is still to be written? They are the crown and glory of our civilization, but they can readily be set aside if they fall out of sympathy with the vast movements about them. I do not say whether they should seek to resist or to sustain or to guide and control these movements. But if they would not dry up and wither they must at least understand them. “A great university must be in touch with the world about it, with its hopes, its passions, its troubles, and its strivings. If it is not it must be content. ‘For aye to be in the shady cloister mewed, Chanting faint hymns to the cold, fruitless moon.’ “The university which pretends to give a liberal education must understand the movements about it, see whether the great forces are tending, and justify its existence by breeding men who by its teachings are more able to render the service which humanity is ever seeking.” * * * * * Professor Fried. Aug. Flückiger died on Dec. 11, 1894, at Berne. He was the foremost pharmacognosist and scientific pharmacist of his time. An extended account of his life and works will appear in a later issue of THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. NEW LITERATURE. Readers desiring any of the works contained in this list can obtain them through B. Westerman & Co., 812 Broadway, Gustav E. Stechert, 810 Broadway, or other foreign booksellers. _Bacteriology._ _Mikrophotographischer Atlas der Bakterienkunde._--C. Fraenkel u. R. Pfeiffer. 2 Aufl. 11, u. 12. Lfg. Berlin: August Hirschwald. _Mikrophotographischer Atlas der Bakterienkunde._--Itzgerott u. Niemann, Leipzig: J. A. Barth. _Botany._ _Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Bestandtheile von Cnicus benedictus_ mit hauptsächliche Berücksichtigung des darin enthaltenen bitter schmeckenden Korpers.--Karl Schwander. Inaug.--Diss. Univ. Erlangen.