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of the upper classes are required to give two hours weekly. In giving the gymnastic exercises the teachers must follow the course laid down in the official manual prepared for the purpose. Prussia was the first country in the world to establish normal schools, the earliest of these dating back as far as 1701. In 1819 it was decreed that ten should be established, one in each province. Now there are eighty-eight. In the whole German empire there are one hundred and forty-three. The course of training in these professional schools varies from three to six years. In 1873 there were twenty-one universities in the German empire, with one thousand seven hundred and thirty-four professors, and eighteen thousand five hundred and eighty-eight students.

RUSSIA.

UNDER new laws just issued, no National School in Russia is to be opened without official sanction, and they are all to be placed under Government control. In each district this control will be exercised by a School Council, the Councils to be composed of the Marshal of the Nobility, the School Inspector, and Representatives of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Episcopal Diocese, two members of the District Assembly, and one of the Municipal Council, when the latter takes part in the maintenance of schools. The expense of establishing the system of control above described is estimated at 319,000 roubles. The subjects to be taught are religion, reading Russian and ancient Slavonic, writing, the first four rules of arithmetic, and singing. Instruction is to be given in the Russian language, and those books only are to be used which are recommended by the Ministry of Education and the ecclesiastical authorities.

The Russian Commission, appointed to afford greater facilities for the instruction of women in the empire, have recommended that in order to deter Russian women from going to foreign universities, a "Higher School for Women" should be established at St. Petersburg. This school is to be divided into five sections: First, a physico-mathematical, with a pharmaceutical sub-section; second, a Russian section; third, a Ger

man one; fourth, a French one; fifth, a historico-philological section. In the last four sections the teaching of Latin is to be obligatory. In the fifth section, modern history is to be taught in the first year, mediæval history in the second, and ancient history in the third. The length of the course in all the sections is to be three years.

Russia has instituted successful and valuable Teachers' Meetings, and a large number of Normal Schools. In 1872, the Government appropriated 230,000 roubles for these schools. The gymnasia teach Greek, Latin, German, French, and scientific. branches. The professional schools offer to students, mathematics, drawing and design, chemistry, and other industrial studies. In 1874, the State appropriated 150,000 roubles for the feminine gymnasia. At the end of 1871, Russia had one hundred and eighty-six establishments of medium and higher instruction for girls, attended by twenty-three thousand four hundred and four pupils. Russia has also eight universities like those of Germany, taught by five hundred and twelve professors, and frequented by six thousand seven hundred and seventy-nine students.

There are no complete official statistics of the number of primary schools in the country. The last published report, 1872, computed the number in European Russia at twenty-four thousand, with an attendance of eight hundred and seventy-five thousand pupils. Teachers' Institutes were held in forty-seven different localities. Owing to the sparseness and poverty of the population outside the cities, the spread of education is unquestionably attended with no little difficulty in Russia. The prospects are certainly, however, flattering.

SWITZERLAND.

IN accordance with the new Constitution, the public schools of Switzerland may be attended by the members of all sects without prejudice to their liberty of conscience. Convinced that religious instruction in elementary schools ought not to be dispensed with, the Society for Liberal Christianity of Switzerland had taken the initiative by offering prizes for a book of unsectarian religious instruction. Two prizes, 500 francs and

200 francs, have been proffered for the two best works. They must be sent in, anonymously at present, by the end of March, 1875. The work may be in the German or French language.

School attendance is obligatory in all but four of the cantons of Switzerland, unless it be shown that children are receiving equally good instruction in private schools or at home, and even then such children must undergo examinations. In some of the cantons the prescribed school age is from seven to fourteen, in others from six to sixteen. The schools are maintained by taxation. Gymnastics and military exercises form a prominent feature, and to provide competent teachers young men are sent by the government to receive instruction in the great gymnastic establishment in Dresden. There are three Swiss Universities, situated at Basel, Bern, and Zurich. They are cantonal rather than national, and are organized after the general plan of the German University, but are of inferior rank.

IN the Tennessee Teachers' Association meeting held recently, one of them said, that while he believed in the co-education of boys and girls before the war, his opinion was now somewhat changed. He thought that boys now, as a rule, were less fit to associate with girls than they were then.

IT is reported that among persons of eighteen years and under the proportion of the illiterate is smaller in San Francisco than in any other large city in the Union.

AN Indianapolis teacher thinks that too much school time is. occupied in trying to learn exact historical dates, and that only a few of the more important should be learned.

NOT long since the people of a Brazilian city decided to erect a monument indicative of their respect for the present wise Emperor. The latter, hearing of their purpose, sent word to them that the most gratifying expression of regard on their part would be in the erection of a school-house for the education of their children.

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The above table has been prepared by Professor E. B. Elliott of Washington. Basing his conclusions on the same calculations which gave these figures, he estimates that the population of the United States in 1870 would have been 41,718,000 instead of 38,588,000, had there been no war. In 1880 it would be 54,017,000, instead of 50,858,000.

ELEVEN States of the Union now have compulsory educational laws, viz.: California, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Texas, Nevada. Of these New Jersey, New York, and California have adopted the law this year.

Number.

STATES.

TABLE 2.-NUMBER OF SCHOOLS, SCHOOL TEACHERS, AND SALARIES PAID.

(1873.)

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Average Monthly
Salaries.

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