or to persons of equivalent education, who have been approved as candidates for the degree by the Committee on Admission from Other Colleges. The distribution, both of the recipients of degrees and of students, in the several branches of learning and science, is very general, and, with some exceptions, uniform. In point of numbers of students, no one department stands distinctly above the others; nor, on the other hand, is any department neglected. These facts bear silent witness to the range and quality of the instruction offered by the University. Detailed statistics on these matters must be reserved for future publication. The Graduate School is an institution in which the various classes of students are gathered. It is primarily a school of the higher learning, where college graduates may extend on lines of deeper fruitfulness the liberal training that they have already received. It is also a professional School for original workers in literature and science, and for men who, on showing their ability in literary and scientific study and research, receive the approval of the University as suitable persons to become teachers and leaders of thought in our higher institutions of learning. Such being the variety of aim on the part of the members of the Graduate School, it is to be expected that their periods of attendance at the University should differ greatly in individual cases. A table of such periods for students at present in residence is subjoined:

The Graduate School was organized in 1890, with Professor J. M. Peirce as its first Dean. For about twenty years previously, however, Professor Peirce, as Secretary of the Academic Council, had supervised the administration of the Graduate instruction in the University. On his withdrawal, in December last, from the office of Dean of the School to become Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, his late colleagues of the Administrative Board of the Graduate School passed a minute, which it is fitting should find a permanent record in this Magazine.

Minute to Professor James Mills Peirce.

At a meeting of the Administrative Board of the Graduate School of Harvard University, held January 13, 1896, it was Voted, That the following minute be entered in the records of this Board, and that a copy of the same be communicated to Professor Peirce by the Dean of the Graduate School.

“After a service of more than five years as Dean of the Graduate School, James Mills Peirce has retired from that position, and this Board cannot allow the occasion to pass without expressing its high appreciation of his services to the Graduate School and to the cause of higher education throughout the country, as well as the regret of all its members at being deprived of a leader for whom they feel the warmest affection.

"The commanding influence of Professor Peirce on graduate study in this University did not begin with his formal appointment as Dean of the Graduate School. Long before the establishment of that office, he had performed its duties under the title of Secretary of the Academic Council. In this capacity his wise foresight gave to the Graduate School at its foundation the constitution which it has since retained without substantial change. In the years that followed he avoided on the one hand the iron conservatism common among the founders of systems, and on the other the restless pursuit of change characteristic of the professional He has devoted himself to an unceasing, patient, and judicious study of the needs of the School, and he has been enabled thereby to introduce numerous improvements in administration. It shows the breadth of his mind that the multitude of administrative details which have of necessity beset him on all sides have not blinded him to the higher needs of the School, but that his reforms have given greater simplicity in administration and greater freedom (without license) to the students.

"All this devotion to the weightier interests of the School has not prevented the most punctual and accurate performance of the lesser and less attractive duties of his position; and in his dealings with the students he has displayed an urbanity, a patient attention to their complaints, even under the most irritating conditions, and a devotion to their welfare, which have made him the father of the Graduate students as well as of the Graduate School.

"Nor should it be forgotten that in the Faculty, in the important Committees, and before the public, he has ever been the able and enthusiastic champion of graduate study and the steadfast defender of research; and this research, with characteristic impartiality, he has encouraged equally in all branches of knowledge.

"In spite of the occasional differences of opinion, as to details, which are inevitable when men of diverse characters are associated together, he always commanded the sympathy and coöperation of his colleagues on this Board. All have realized that he was working solely for the advancement of what is highest in education, and all the members of this Board would express their deep regret in parting with one who has bound them to him with the strongest ties of admiration and esteem."

THE LIBRARY.

The books which were removed from Gore Hall during the changes in the building have been placed in the new stack, and all books are now accessible, except the bound volumes of newspapers, which are temporarily shelved in Perkins Hall basement, until shelves are built for the most important of them in the new stack; while the others must remain in Perkins. The unclassified books from the old stack and the Art Room, works on Folk-lore, and the Bartlett Collection on Angling have been moved into the new stack, making in all about 16,000 volumes now in that building. In the Art Room, which is now used as a supplementary reading room, are placed 6,000 volumes, comprising United States documents and reserved books in American history, and seats are provided therein for 45 readers, including reserved seats for Radcliffe students, giving accommodations with main reading room for about 260 readers. The work of rearranging the books in the old stack is now in progress, and the confusion arising from overcrowded shelves will soon be remedied. The Library has received, through Professor Beale of the Law School, and as a gift from Judge Joseph M. Day, of Barnstable, a large mass of papers accumulated in the Bourne family of that town during the last century, including civil, military, and trade affairs, and they are now undergoing examination.

MEDICAL SCHOOL.

During the summer of 1895 the Medical School was singled out as a target for the attacks of the anti-vivisectionists, who at that time began a crusade preparatory to asking for legislation from the present General Court. All sorts of charges and insinuations were made in the daily press, and it was said that these would be substantiated at the proper time. Considerable public sentiment was aroused. The Anti-vivisection Society led in the movement, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has also become committed to this policy by its president, although in past years he himself has recognized the desirability of knowledge which could only be obtained by experimental research, and asserted that it was no part of the policy of the society to join the anti-vivisection movement. Why he has now changed his position, it is impossible to explain, considering that there has been an ever-increasing tendency towards the use of anaesthetics, and that the highly-wrought tales are for the most part or wholly the product of by-gone years. At last there came a chance to meet the charges. The Judiciary Committee of the Legislature gave a hearing, at which the anti-vivisectionists presented their case; and they showed that they had not one iota of

evidence on which to substantiate their malicious charges. As a member of the Committee said to me after the first hearing, "I really thought there was something back of all this that would show cause for regulating the matter, but there is absolutely nothing in it." Finally, the Committee by a unanimous vote gave the petitioners "leave to withdraw.” The weight of the attack was made against the Harvard Medical School, but the School was supported in their opposition to the anti-vivisectionists by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Boston University Medical School, and Wellesley College. And now, after having won this passing victory, the School is made happy by the announcement of the gift of $100,000 by a Boston merchant, for a chair of Experimental Pathology for the study of the relationship of the diseases in men and animals. This proves that thoughtful and intelligent laymen can see the great advances yet to be won by pure experimental research. It is, I think, the first chair of this kind in the United States, and its occupant will have a position similar to that now held by Koch in Germany, or to that so long held by Pasteur in France.

The routine work of the School has advanced with considerable enthusiasm throughout the year. Perhaps the most interesting thing from a purely scientific point of view has been the publication by Dr. F. B. Mallory, '86, in the Centralblatt für Pathologie, of a new method of staining the neuroglia. Four days later Professor C. Weigert, of Frankfort a. M., read a most elaborate paper, wherein he announced his method of producing the same results, but by a much more complicated process. -James H. Wright, A. M., '94, of the Pathological Department, has been made resident pathologist to the Massachusetts General Hospital, a position which will offer the greatest chance for the study of certain forms of clinical material in which this hospital is specially rich. He is at present in Europe on leave of absence, for the purpose of study and observation in similar laboratories. The bacteriological work in Diphtheria under the auspices of the City Board of Health has given most favorable results, as was demonstrated by the report of that body. — Dr. Pfaff, in the Department of Experimental Therapeutics, has completed his work upon the active principle of the poison ivy, finding that the poison is a NON-volatile oil and acetic acid. He has further had a most wonderful chance to make observations into the action of cholagogue upon a patient who had a biliary fistula. The extent of his work is shown when it is known that he has made no less than 380 analyses of bile, and many of faeces. The results of his investigations are briefly that no cholagogue excepting bile itself has practically any effect upon the secretions of the liver. A most important event so far as the School is concerned has been the selection of Dr. Arthur T. Cabot to succeed the late

Martin Brimmer as Fellow of the University. For many years a teacher in the School, although not a member of the Faculty, Dr. Cabot is in full touch with the most advanced ideas in regard to Medical Education; having in addition to the acute mind of an active, successful surgeon, the instincts of a scientific investigator; which, together with his well-known ability to pass severe but accurate judgment upon men, will make him a man of the greatest value to the University at large.

SUMMER SCHOOL.

A. K. Stone, '83.

The prospect for the work of the Summer School is now, on the whole, more satisfactory than it has been at the same time in any preceding year. So far as is indicated by the correspondence, it seems probable that there will be an increase of at least twenty-five per cent. in the number of students attending above the total in 1895. - The aim of the Committee having the Summer School in charge has been, of late years, to arrange the instruction of the School almost altogether with reference to the needs of teachers. An examination of the list of subjects offered will show that they relate almost altogether to the instruction given in the secondary schools or in colleges. The only hindrance to the rapid extension of this project to the point where it would more effectively serve the interests of instructors arises from the fact that the School is quite unendowed, and that the money for its expenses cannot, save in case of temporary exigencies, be drawn from University funds. On this account it is necessary so to arrange the budget that by groups of years the income from the School shall be equal to the expenditure.

An endowment of the Summer School to an amount which would give that department a fixed revenue of say $2,000 a year would enable the authorities safely to undertake the establishment of desirable courses now lacking, with the assurance that such courses might be maintained for a number of years, or even in certain cases permanently, without reference to the returns in money. In the present condition of the budget of the School, courses, however desirable as elements in the plan, have to be dropped, if, after a trial of two years they prove unremunerative. It is, perhaps, worth while to say, that no other department of the University is conducted with a greater measure of economy than the Summer School. The total allowance for clerk hire and other like expenses incurred in the administration has, on the average of ten years, been less than $300 a year. The pay of the instructors is in most cases so low that is to be regarded rather as a votive offering than There is no reason to doubt that the spirit of selffar has supported the Summer School will always be

the work they do as done for gain. devotion which so