such a professional school should hereafter be added to the University. Even for the Lawrence Scientific School the requirements for admission are now so low that it will take some years to bring them up to the standard of Harvard College. When they shall have been brought up, as is now intended, to the same standard, the present chief motive for entering the Scientific School instead of the College will be gone. Not until then will the recent pooling of income of the College and the Scientific School cease to be a source of great danger to the College. Up to the present time the Overseers have been chiefly concerned with matters relating to general education. The management of the Professional Schools has been left largely to their faculties. If hereafter a more general pooling of income should be adopted, and the claims of specialists to share the time and money of the University should be seriously considered by so large a body as the Overseers from any point of view other than the interests of general education, it is to be feared that the proposed extension of the suffrage would lead to the election of Overseers pledged or expected to vote in the interest of their special constituents. In this event the temptation to deal with education as a tariff or a “river and harbor bill” is usually dealt with by a legislative body would be almost irresistible. The professional degrees of Harvard University are now sometimes spoken of as higher degrees, and the A. B. as the lower degree of a mere preparatory school. As between a professional degree alone and an A. B. degree alone, we think the latter in no sense a less important degree. The A. B. degree is more than others the degree which binds graduates of the University together. That the government of Harvard University should remain in the hands of those who represent general education seems to us altogether a wise policy. To extend the suffrage as now proposed would certainly lessen the power and therefore the sense of responsibility of those graduates of the College who have, with the help of their friends, so largely built up the University -in recent years. We doubt if the new holders of power would care enough and do enough for the University to make good the loss. As no one proposes to give any voting power to either teachers or students while they live under the government of the University, the usual argument for suffrage extension in politics has, of course, no application to Harvard College. The argument frequently made in favor of extension, that it is "sure to come," seems to us not worth consideration. It should always be remembered that the powers of the Board of Overseers are so great that only the moderation and good feeling with which they have generally been used have made it possible for the Corporation and the Faculties to carry on the University without serious friction. A like spirit hereafter is essential to the welfare of the University, and to secure it the greatest care must be taken to choose Overseers for their fitness to deal with questions of education in a large way. ALEXANDER AGASSIZ. BOSTON, September 17, 1898. THE UNIVERSITY. THE OPENING OF THE YEAR. The annual statistical period has come around again, when from the had of the prospects of the University. The figures fur- Statistics. The comparison of one year with the previous year offers only a nar- of the Professional Schools. Every year since 1887 has shown an increase of numbers, while both the conditions of entrance and the work of the undergraduate have grown at least no easier. To be sure, the Scientific School in the last five years has gained one half, while the College has gained only an eighth: but the actual increase in College students in the College is 197, and of Scientific students is 139; and, indeed, the variety of courses in the Scientific School is now such as to admit a training very like that for the A. B. The College more than holds its own. In the College and Scientific School the special students are diminishing in absolute number, (265 in 1895, now 231), and still more relatively. The Graduate School has shown a steady increase every year since 1888, with the exception of 1897-98; and now stands at a point which makes it in numbers, as it has long been in influence, one of the great departments of the University. In view of the excellence of rival Graduate Schools, this growth at Harvard is a tribute to the advantages which the University possesses for the higher studies. A Decade's '88-'9. '89-90 '90-'1. '91-'2. '92-'3. '93-'4. '94-'5. '95-'6. '96-'7. '97-'8. '98-'9. Professional 133 278 308 539 521 442 332 429 119 340 147 * Indicates a loss compared with the previous year. Most of the Professional Schools have had a similar record of almost uninterrupted growth. The Law School is now established practically as a Graduate School, yet continues to draw a few more every year from its highly trained constituency. The Medical School is soon to require academic degrees for entrance, and has out grown its building, yet is attractive to the best and most highly cultivated men. The Dental School from small beginnings has become a large and prosperous institution, even though hampered by a lack of proper buildings. The Bussey Institution puts forth a new crop of shoots this year, and appears at last to have found its constituency. The Divinity School has lost numbers for three years, partly from causes which affect all theological seminaries, and partly from insisting on an academic degree for entrance and a tuition fee of $150. The Veterinary School, one of the most humane and useful of the scientific forces in the University, appears to be in advance of the civilization of the community. The Summer Schools this year surpassed the previous highwater mark of 1897, and counted 746 persons, of whom very few appear elsewhere in the University lists. In Radcliffe the numbers have doubled in about eight years; but it still is not sought by the large numbers of graduates of that and other women's colleges who were expected. By the courtesy of officials in several of the other large universities, it is possible to construct the table below, which furnishes Our cheerful comparisons for Harvard, and at the same time gives Neighbors. some indication of the trend of education in the United States. Harvard College still remains far and away the largest American college, surpassing its nearest competitors by about 600; and the next largest academic departments, Yale and the University of Michigan, are at the moment at a kind of standstill so far as numbers are concerned. The Scientific School has now become the third in numbers among those which are part of universities, though of course much smaller than the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There is no evidence in this table, and has been none for several years, that the scientific schools grow at the expense of the colleges. Most of the graduate schools are growing, though the tendency is to concentrate in the very largest city institutions, where the libraries, laboratories, and variety of instruction and interest are greatest. The Harvard Law School stands next to that of the University of Michigan in numbers, but is perhaps best compared with Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, in which similar methods of instruction are used. The Medical Schools tend to grow in the large cities: the very large schools of Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania are affected by the competition of other excellent schools in New York and Philadelphia, but in no professional schools is it more evident that the best instruction draws the best students. Compared with other universities, Harvard makes a respectable total gain. Columbia comes forward, with rapid strides, as was to have been hoped, since settling in the new buildings; and is already one of the great universities in the country in its professional teaching. University One of the most useful departments of the University is the Publication Office, domiciled in University 2, with the printingoffice below, for in it are now concentrated some important University functions. In the first place, it is the "job-office" for all kinds of official printing, such as Faculty dockets and notices, reports of committees, circulars, and office stationery; and the administration recognizes the convenience and economy of printing all materials which must be brought to the notice of a large body of persons. In the second place, the Publication Office is a centre for recent information about other Universities; a set of catalogues of schools and colleges is kept up for reference and comparison; and exchanges of publications are arranged. In the third place, the large and increasing series of announcements and catalogues are distributed from this office, and most of them are printed there. About forty pamphlets are now issued in annual editions, besides the weekly Calendar, the annual Catalogue, and the |