"The winner and still the champion is Economics 10," assistant registrar Paul Gardner said yesterday, announcing "very preliminary" enrollment figures that show 993 students will sit through that course this semester.

Gardner's figures, which he said were based on "those students who turned in their study cards the week they were due," showed last year's runner-up, Humanities 9a, "Oral and Early Literature" holding at second on the list with 628 students, and Natural Sciences 110, "Automatic Computing," coming in third with 504.

Good Shape

Economics 10 "is in better shape than last year" despite the large enrollment, Otto Eckstein, Warburg Professor of Economics, said. "We have 33 sections as opposed to 28 last year."

Eckstein said that he had actually expected course enrollment to drop from last year's 920 figure. "If I'd known we were going to have 993," he said, "I would have gone out on the street and found seven more students."

"When the economy is going bad, our enrollment jumps," Eckstein said, adding that another factor in the rising enrollment is an increasing number of students headed for law and business schools and "some that actually plan to work."

Albert B. Lord '34, Porter Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature who teaches Hum 9a, said he doubted his course would ever grow as big as Ec 10. "I'm delighted to have 628 students," he said.

Lord credited "an excellent reading list and some very good lecturers" for his course's continuing popularity.

Three courses, Social Sciences 160, "Nonverbal Communication," Natural Sciences 19, "Biology and Behavior Through the Life Cycle," and Social Sciences 15a, "Introduction to Psychology and Social Relations," made the top ten list for the first time.

They replaced Economics 1500, "Financial Accounting," Natural Sciences 3, "Introduction to Chemistry," and Natural Sciences 6, "Organismic and Evolutionary Biology" which had been among the ten most popular courses last last year.

Robert Rosenthal, professor of Social Psychology who teaches fourth-ranking Soc Sci 160, said this may be the last year the course will be offered because of the retirement of the other instructor, Laurence Wylie, Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France.

No Room

Rosenthal said that the non-verbal communication course benefitted from the large enrollment. "It makes it economical to bring in some extremely talented outside speakers," he said.

Irven DeVore, professor of Anthropology, said his course, Nat Sci 19, is so popular because "there are a lot of people looking for a less demanding, labless, Natural Science course."

DeVore said the course was especially well-attended yesterday when his co-instructor, Melvin J. Konner, brought his eight-day-old daughter, Susanna Stastok, into class. "We were studying newborn infants and he just happened to have one," DeVore said.

Courses that suffered big drops from last year's enrollment include Astronomy 8, "Cosmic Evolution," which is down from 519 students a year ago to 396 this fall.

"We designed the course to be a little more difficult this year," Eric J. Chaisson, assistant professor of Astronomy, said, "in the hopes that we could cut down a bit on the enrollment. I also made a plea the first day for the scientists to get out of the class."

Enrollment in several other large courses, including Chemistry 20a, "Organic Chemistry," and Fine Arts 13, "Introduction to the History of Art," also dropped slightly compared to last year. The Top Ten Economics 10  993 Hum 9a  628 Nat Sci 110  504 Soc Sci 160  429 Nat Sci 19  413 Math 1a  412 Fine Arts 13  403 Astronomy 8  396 Chemistry 20a  380 Soc Sci 15a  374 Economics 10, "Principles of Economics," led the College's list of most popular courses again this year.