In a letter accompanying this statement, Dr. Eliot calls attention to the fact that only three of the professorships here mentioned are completely endowed.

In his report for 1886-87, he notes that the university has received this year gifts and bequests to the amount of more than a million of dollars. This includes the Price Greenleaf bequest of $630,000, the scholarships and other aid provided for poor stu dents, but which are restricted in their application to undergraduates of the college proper. ORGANIZATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

[From letter of Jesse T. Burk, secretary of the University.]

"The college department comprises a department of arts, one of science, a course of philosophy for undergraduates, a course in music, and a department of finance and economy. The one faculty governing and teaching this complex body is not all concerned in the teaching of any one section. Indeed, throughout the university, one professor may belong to and teach in several faculties. So also an endowed chair, of which we have but few, may provide for instruction in several of these united departments. I beg to add a few special statements:

"1. This university receives no State or municipal aid. Its board of trustees fills its own vacancies, and has no other connection with the State than that the Governor is ex officio the president.

"2. In addition to the fixed scholarships noted in the report on colleges (2 State and 50 city prizes), there are special grants made of an average of 25 others, privately, at the discretion of the board.

"3. Two commencements are held annually,-1st, that in May, of the medical and dental departments; 2d, that in June of the college (arts, science, finance, philosophy, music), law, and veterinary departments. Honorary degrees may be conferred at

either.

"The schools of arts, science, philosophy, finances are in fact one for the first two years, diverging only on entering third or junior year, hence no separate report can be made of income from tuition fees."

ORGANIZATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.

[From letter of Prof. Charles S. Venable, chairman of the faculty.]

The University of Virginia is a university in the broad sense of the Euro

pean universities.

"The library is undivided and is as a whole for the institution.

"Neither the law class nor the medicine class have a separate dean. All the students of the institution are on the same footing, and many in the academic departments have also some of the law school or medicine school. We have no separate college of arts or of sciences. Many in scientific departments are also in departments of arts. All of these departments report to one head, the chairman of the faculty.

"Attendance is required of all students in any and every department, and all are subject to daily examination in portion of subject assigned.

"As requested I send several catalogues and sketches. You see all of the students are catalogued together."

THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA.

The material resources of the University of Alabama have been greatly improved during the year by the completion of the new university building. The work fitly closes a series of efforts that form an interesting chapter in the educational record of the last decade. In 1875 the university was placed under the control of a board of trustees nominated by the Governor and approved by the Senate of the State. They found the university in a prostrate condition and applied themselves to the difficult task of restoring its prestige. Their first endeavor was to clear up the accounts and place the funds upon a sound basis. This was so successfully accomplished that since 1676-77 it has been possible to obtain, whenever desired, an accurate knowledge of the university finances. Then followed the revision of the rules and regulations affecting the internal discipline and the conduct of studies. The result is seen in the elevated tone of the university life, in the advancement of its scholastic standards and its consequent increase in numbers and influence.

It remained to secure proper housing for the revived institution. The need in this respect is indicated by a statement in the report of the trustees for 1881-82. "The building now in use," they say, "is only the rear portion and a part of the two sides of the structure as originally planned, was not constructed or adapted for many of the uses to which it is now put, and its use, except as barracks, messroom, and recitation rooms, was only a makeshift until the building could be completed."

In their appeals to the General Assembly for the appropriation of a building fund the trustees simply sought justice, the State being debtor to the university for large sums on account of the proceeds of the sale of the "university lands." Such, how

ever, was the condition of the State finances that no appropriation for the purpose was possible until 1884, in which year $60,000 were allowed. Since that time the work has been steadily pushed to its completion.

The buildings erected comprise 4 halls, inclosing a quadrangle or court 230 by 250 feet, from the centre of which a sentinel on duty commands a view of all the rooms. Clark Hall, the central building on the south side, which is the front of the quadrangle, is a handsome structure of brick and gray limestone, and is appropriated to general academic uses. It is three stories in height, and has a front of 60 feet and a depth of 100 feet. The first story contains the library and reading rooms, and the chapel. The great public hall of the university occupies the second and third stories. This hall will seat with comfort 800 people on the first floor, with accommodations for several hundred more in the galleries. An extensive laboratory has also just been completed.

In its organization the University of Alabama comprises two departments, the academic and professional. The former consists of eleven schools, the studies of which are so arranged as to form four separate and complete courses, as follows: (1) The classical course; (2) the scientific course; (3) the civil engineering course; (4) the mining engineering course.

"A suitable degree is conferred upon students, who complete the studies in either of these courses.'

Military training is a feature of the academic department, which has attracted much attention especially since the interstate drill for cadets held at New Orleans in 1885, on which occasion the prize was won by the university students.

The law department organized in 1873 embraces: (1) The school of internal and constitutional law; (2) the school of common and statute law; (3) the school of equity jurisprudence.

This course may be completed in one scholastic year and leads to the degree of bachelor of laws, which entitles the recipient to practice law in all the courts of law and equity in this State.

The progress of the university here outlined is emphasized by the statistics reported to this Office. As compared with 1875 the number of professors has increased from 10 to 15, the number of students from 75 to 212, and the volumes in the library from 4,000 to 7,115.

Moreover, the statistics for the years between 1875 and 1886-87 show that the increase has been steady during the period.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY — ORGANIZATION, RECENT BUILDING OPERATIONS.

[From letter of C. H. Thurber, secretary of the university, and special documents.] "The only division recognized in the university is that according to courses of study. This division on broad lines is between general and technical courses. Among the latter are included courses in agriculture, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, architecture, etc. But the students in these various courses are all classified together; they have the same instructors so far as they have the same branches of study; they recite in the same classes, they are subject to the same discipline, and are in no way separated, except by the fact of the difference in courses. All students in mechanical engineering must take shop work during the whole four years of the course; all agricultural students must take practical work in the field, and so on. There are always a considerable number taking this work who are not required to take it." From an analysis of the statistics reported to this Office it appears that the 743 classified students reported for 1886-87 were distributed among the courses of study as follows: 4 per cent. in agriculture; 15 per cent. in civil engineering; 15 per cent in mechanical engineering; 8 per cent. in electrical engineering; 6 per cent. in architecture; 1 per cent. in chemistry; 8 per cent in science (including 3 students in preparatory medical); 11 per cent. in letters; 6 per cent. in arts; 8 per cent. in philosophy, and 18 per cent. in special or partial courses.

A

The chemical and physical building was opened for occupancy in September, 1888. The rooms of the physical department occupy the first floor and the basement. The second and third floors are occupied by the chemical department. The building contains, in addition to the amply equipped laboratories, two large lecture rooms. fire-proof one-story annex, built of brick, was erected north of the chemical and physical building during the year 1886-87, for the further extension of the work of the chemical department. It contains the laboratories of organic chemistry and assaying, with the necessary balance rooms and store room.

The unexpectedly large attendance of students at the beginning of the year at Sibley College made it immediately apparent that the room would soon be inadequate to the accommodation of the new classes. The director reported that another class as large as the one entering in the fall of 1886-87 could not possibly be accommodated. The matter having been brought before Mr. Sibley, he added to his already generous gifts to the university a sum sufficient for the building and equipment

of the required extension. The Sibley College extension, now nearly completed, is 150 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 2 stories high. The whole upper floor is devoted to drawing, and the rooms are fitted with improved drawing desks. The lower floor is divided by a transverse hall, at the right side of which is a large room in which are placed all the testing machines for use in investigating the strength and other properties of the materials used in mechanical engineering and construction. At the extreme right of the building are a room for an instructor and for the use of students working up their data, and another room for special research. At the left of the hall is a group of rooms devoted to tests of engines, steam pumps, and various motors, which will be set up permanently, and to the temporary mounting of small motors sent in for test. At the extreme west end of this floor are the boiler room and a room devoted to calorimetric investigations.

A noteworthy addition to the material equipment of the university made in the course of the year has been the gift by ex-President White of his library of history and political science. This remarkable collection of books, brought together as the result of very careful study and observation, and consisting of about 30,000 volumes, is doubtless, in many respects, the most valuable private historical library ever collected in this country.

WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY-NEEDS OF AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.

[From letter of E. M. Turner, president.]

"You will observe from my report in the blank relating to the agricultural department, that we are very weak in that line. The truth is that very little attention is paid to this department by the Legislature, or by the board of regents, owing to the following facts: (1) Our people are not a farming people in the sense of tilling, though there is marked advance in that department of agricultural work in the recent past; our principal business is raising stock, horses, sleep, cattle, etc. Experiments in the feeding and breeding of animals are expensive, and they have never been undertaken by the university. (2) We have no college farm, and have never had a practical agriculturist connected with the institution. (3) The fund of the university arising from the land grant amounts to only about $90,000, which is invested in United States bonds. The Legislature appropriates about $20,000 annually for the support of the university.

If the Hatch bill, passed last winter, should be perfected and the scope of it modified so as to include the class of agricultural industry in which our people are mainly interested, I have no doubt the Legislature will at its next session provide a suitable farm and buildings for an experiment station in connection with the university. I may say, in a general way, that educational work, in all departments, in West Virginia is in a crude condition owing to the history of our State and its undeveloped condition. A large part of the State was the prey of both armies during the War, and the cost of building public edifices has been a great tax, as also the inception and development of a State system of schools. There has really been nothing left for higher educational or technical or industrial education. The State also received a very small share of the land grant scrip for agricultural colleges, and what was received was very improvidently disposed of by the Legislature.

"Taking all these matters into consideration, I think the State is to be congratulated on the condition of its educational system. We are now engaged in trying to encourage the establishment of local high schools and academies; so as to give the youth of the State the advantages of preparatory training at home, and thus make it easier for them to bear the cost of the college course.

"I trust that these explanations may account for the meagre report I make of our agricultural department. I am very anxious to develop this part of our work, but see no prospect of our being able to do so in the present condition of our finances."

MEMORABLE EVENTS OF THE YEAR.

The year has been made memorable in the history of superior instruction by the following events:

The University of Michigan celebrated the completion of its first half century in June, 1857.

On Wednesday, the 13th of April, 1587, Columbia College commemorated the one hundredth anniversary of the revival and confirmation by the Legislature of the State of New York of the royal charter granted in 1754.

The two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Harvard College was celebrated from the 5th to the 8th of November, 1886.

As usual the current college catalogues and the reports of presidents contain valuable information and suggestive discussions relative to superior instruction. Much of this material is reserved for use in the treatment of special topics which are being investigated in the Office. This is particularly the ease with matter bearing upon the development of college courses in English language and literature and the increasing provision for the study of the history and civil polity of our own country

subjects with reference to which there is great activity in all classes of superior institutions.

In the present Report extracts from the catalogues have been for the most part limited to accounts of the increase in material resources and building operations, which have been a noticeable feature of the current record.

NOTES FROM College Catalogues.

CALIFORNIA.

University of California—Lick Observatory.-During the year covered by this Report great advance has been made toward the completion of the buildings of the Lick Observatory. The glass discs for the 36-inch objective, cast by M. Feil, in Paris, and figured by Alvan Clark & Sons, have been safely stored at the observatory. If the necessary glass for a photographic corrector (36 inches in aperture) can be obtained, it is the intention of the Lick trustees to order the same to be made.

If no unforeseen accident occurs, the observatory will be delivered, completed, to the University of California before the close of 1887.

St. Ignatius College.-The scientific department of St. Ignatius College, San Francisco, has attained a high degree of efficiency. It is provided with commodious quarters, comprising lecture rooms for physics and chemistry, a chemical laboratory, and an extensive cabinet of physics, rooms for qualitative and quantitative analysis, enginerooms, with magneto-electric machines, battery rooms, complete telegraphic stations, rooms for preparations, balances, spectroscopic studies, and other scientific experiments and investigations, museums of mineralogy, geology, and collections of natural objects and curiosities of different kinds, and it is furnished with a very large and choice collection of philosophical and chemical apparatus. Among recent additions are a large improved electrical machine, and a modern dynamo-electric generator to supply fifteen large arc lights, and above one hundred incandescent lamps, designed to illustrate all the most recent improvements in electric lighting, electro-motion, etc.

The Santa Clara College, at Santa Clara, has a well-equipped scientific department and special facilities for practical training, among which is a printing office furnished with two steam presses and all the necessary appendages of a complete establishment for job and book work.

COLORADO.

University of Denver.-During the year steps have been taken towards securing a large permanent endowment for this university. Nearly 500 acres of land have been obtained on an elevation overlooking the city. Here a town site has been laid out with over 2,500 lots, including a large campus for the university. One quarter of each block in this town is to be retained in perpetuity for the endowment of the institution, while the proceeds of the sales of the remainder are to be devoted to other purposes in the discretion of the board of trustees. With this plan it is believed that the university has a prospective endowment which will insure its success.

CONNECTICUT.

Trinity College reports a building in progress to contain a gymnasium and a public hall. It will be ready for occupation before the close of the year. The cost will be nearly $35,000, a large part of which was provided by special contributions of alumni and friends of the college.

Yale University. The designation Yale University, which was officially authorized by the corporation of Yale College soon after President Dwight's accession, has been legalized by an act of the General Assembly of the State, passed in March, 1887. In December, 1886, the university suffered a great loss in the sudden death of Mr. Henry C. Kingsley, who had served as its treasurer for nearly 25 years. Under his wise and prudent management the invested funds had increased from less than seven hundred thousand dollars to considerably over two millions. Among the gifts recorded in 1887 is $100,000 from Hon. Simeon B. Chittenden, of Brooklyn, N. Y., for an enlargement of the university library.

GEORGIA.

The School of Technology, Emory College, Oxford, Ga., was opened in October, 1884. By gifts from friends interested in industrial education, North and South, its facilities for practice and instruction have rapidly increased, until at present it represents in buildings and appliances an investment of $10,000.

INDIANA.

DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind., celebrates its semi-centennial during the present year, having been chartered January 10, 1837. The progress of the university is thus summed up in the catalogue for 1887: "At the beginning it did not own a foot

of land; now its grounds embrace 150 acres. From a small rented building of but 2 rooms it now has 9 edifices, most of them among the best devoted to the purposes of education anywhere. From a faculty of 4 members its present staff of instruction comprises 41 professors and teachers, besides occasional lecturers, with libraries, physical, chemical, and biological laboratories, and all the appliances of first-class instruction. Beginning with 5 students, mostly from the immediate neighborhood, its attendance now reaches 843, and from nearly all parts of the world.”`

Through the liberality of the late Hon. W. C. De Pauw, and the cooperation of the citizens of Greencastle and of Putnam County, and of the Indiana Methodist Conferences, a large endowment fund was assured to the university in 1884, and the name changed from Indiana Asbury to De Pauw. By means of this endowment, tuition has been made free in nearly all departments.

Earlham College, Richmond, Ind., has received from Mordecai Parry the gift of a science hall, now in process of erection. It is to be 35 by 56 feet, and will contain large and well-equipped chemical and physical laboratories, a lecture-room, apparatus room, etc. A new college building is also in process of erection, which will greatly increase the capacity of the institution.

ILLINOIS.

North-western University, at Evanston, reports the completion of a new memorial hall. It contains a large chapel, library, and reading-room, six lecture-rooms, several private rooms for professors, and a fire-proof vault for the valuable books and papers. It is built of pressed brick, stone, and terra cotta, and is a very beautiful and commodious structure. In the chapel are to be several fine memorial windows.

Augustana College, at Rock Island, reports a memorial hall now in progress of erection. The building is under roof, but for want of necessary funds its completion has been delayed. It will contain the library, the museum, the apparatus, the conservatory, the recitation-rooms, and the assembly hall.

The semicentennial of Knox College, Galesburg, was celebrated June 9, 1887.

IOWA.

Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, has added a building for the accommodation of young women. It provides rooms for about one hundred students. The privileges of the dining hall are not confined to those who live in the building.

Tabor College, Tabor, Iowa, reports a new building containing 17 rooms for offices and recitations, together with rooms for the library, art department, etc. The building has been erected by the gifts of 245 persons and is finished free of debt.

Western College, Toledo, Iowa, reports its main building completed and a hall in process of erection for the accommodation of young women.

KANSAS.

University of Kansas.-In 1885 the Legislature of Kansas appropriated $50,000 for the erection of a building for the department of natural history of the University of Kansas. The building was completed and formally dedicated November 16, 1886. Its museums are designed to make complete display of the material illustrative of botany, zoology, and geology, in which the university is particularly rich. The laboratories are so related to the cabinets as to secure the utmost convenience.

Washburn College, Topeka, Kans., reports the completion of two buildings during the year, viz, Boswell Memorial Library, erected at a cost of $20,000, and the Hallbrook Hall for young women, at a cost of $10,000.

The College of Emporia, reports a new college building sufficiently completed to be available for use during the present year. It is named Stuart Hall, as a inemorial of Mrs. Robert Stuart, of New York City, who, by a gift of $10,000, contributed largely to its erection.

LOUISIANA.

Southern University, the Louisiana State University for the colored people, has just secured a special appropriation of $14,000 from the Legislature for the completion of the new university building.

MARYLAND.

Johns Hopkins University.-In his report for 1886-87 Dr. Gilman, president of Johns Hopkins University, gives the following summary of progress during the year: The number of teachers has been slightly enlarged; the number of students has considerably increased; a new department of instruction, pathology, has been initiated; a