The decision of Boston University to open a course in "Problems of Depression" places the institution in the front rank of up-to-date colleges. So far as can be ascertained, no other university has taken a like step, which is surprising in view of the fact that the world is investigator-ridden today.

Although present day civilization is too eager in its cannonization of the pronouncements of specialists there is much of good in the contemporary tendency to examine all things with intensity. The medical profession furnishes many recognized examples of progress in the combat against disease, as in the case of tuberculosis. Whatever success has been attained has resulted from highly specialized study. The present day standards of living, too, are memorials of long studies which began much in the same way as Boston University has chosen to inaugurate a systematic and scholarly construction of defenses against depression.

The outcome of the new study will be awaited with eagerness. The world in chaos looks to the universities for protection against the recurrent aggressions of economic and spiritual distress.