PUBLICATION OF PRESCRIBED READING.

With prescribed reading playing as important a part in our present system of instruction, it is a matter of considerable astonishment that so little attention has been paid to the preservation of the more than momentarily valuable lists of prescribed work. In some courses the assigned reading is given orally, in others a list is posted on the class room door. Why not publish these bibliographies in the pamphlets of the various departments? Such a course would bring threefold returns: a wiser selection of subjects could be made by the student; an invaluable record, especially in those courses dealing with literature, would be furnished the graduate who desired to review or resume the work of his undergraduate days; and lastly, the publication of such a list would supply in available form a wealth of information to many whom University Extension lectures can never reach. The purpose of the modern University is the dissemination rather than the hoarding of knowledge. Prescribed reading should no longer be treated as a "trade secret."