President of Harvard University and the presentation of degrees made up almost the whole programme. Earlier, on Tuesday, came the Law School celebration, with Sir Frederick Pollock's oration in the Theatre, followed by a dinner in the Gymnasium. The University shows a laudable increase of interest in stated times and seasons, and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Deanship of Professor Langdell was the means of bringing together a great representation of the former students of the Law School, and at the same time of setting the stamp of their success upon the "Langdellian Method," in which most of them have been trained. The power of successful organization is nowhere in the University more distinctly set forth than in the growth of the Law School Association, and in its effect on the esprit de corps of the students and the reputation of the teachers. The third occasion was the College Commencement, marked by no striking incident either in the forenoon exercises, the dinner, or the Class assemblages. Good order ruled, and there was no visible discontent with the Median and Persian law against over-strong punch. Thursday was occupied by the Phi Beta Kappa exercises and dinner. Some such combination of meetings is likely to mark future Commencements, and in them it is evident that the student's small part is diminishing. Class Day week is the student's forum once more.

New

Data for a judgment as to the growth of the University next year do not exist. The Medical School will for the first time hold a whole class for the four years' course. The Law School students. seems to have established a reputation as superior to all its rivals in its combination of learning, thoroughness, and excellent method, and to grow accordingly. The applicants for scholarships and fellowships in the Graduate School were 254 in number, and suggest a growth next year. For the College and Scientific School there is, however, some definite evidence in the records of the entrance examinations. The number of persons examined for entrance into one or other of the two institutions shows a satisfactory gain, from 1,040 in June, 1894, to 1,127 in June, 1895. This, of course, includes the preliminary candidates, numbering 502, almost exactly the same as last year. The gain is to be found in the additional final candidates, of whom about 20 should be credited to the College, and about 60 to the Scientific School. It is evident that Harvard College will probably show no considerable increase next year; but that the Scientific School has become so vigorously rooted that the domain of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences which controls both is likely to be steadily widened. Perhaps this increase will be to some degree offset by the strictness with which the Administrative Board of the Scientific School has dealt with improperly prepared or lazy students: a

considerable number of men have failed of promotion, and many of the special students have been warned that they will be continued only as regulars. The reasons for the very moderate growth of the College are not quite apparent. Undoubtedly the increasing reputation of the Scientific School induces many students to enter upon that side, who would otherwise have entered the College; the competition of other good colleges is severer than formerly; and Harvard appears to be less in sympathy and connection with the preparatory schools outside of New England than are its great rivals. Nevertheless, since Harvard College exceeded Yale College by more than 500 students last year, its primacy is still unquestioned, and the combination of College and Scientific School is likely for many years to be larger than that of other institutions. The distribution of the candidates among the 29 places in which examinations were held is not conclusive as to the popularity of the College in the Middle States and the West, since many boys from those parts of the country attend Eastern schools, where they take their entrance examinations; but most of the places outside New England show a gratifying increase of candidates this year. This is notably the case with Philadelphia, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Chicago, and San Francisco. The gains of the College appear to come from west of the Hudson; those of the Scientific School, chiefly from New England.

Summer

The Summer School has now come to be almost a little university. The establishment of several similar schools throughout the counSchool. try, particularly at Cornell, and the Universities of Chicago, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, might have been expected materially to decrease the Harvard School. It is, therefore, most satisfactory to see the almost undisturbed increase in the number of students. From 1874 to 1886 courses were given in Chemistry, usually in Botany, and sometimes in Geology, the total number of students never exceeding one hundred. Since the establishment of a school with more numerous and varied courses, in 1887, the growth of the School is shown by the table below. It will be noticed that 1893 was the year of the Chicago Exposition, when the tide of travel set westward. The growth of the Summer School in the face of so much rivalry is gratifying. One reason is that teachers from other parts of the country like to visit New England, and to know something of the historical surroundings of Boston. A much stronger reason is the access to the great collections, laboratories, and library, and the opportunity for work under experts. Still another advantage of the Harvard School is its system of intensive work. In many schools of the kind, even those carried on by large and powerful institutions, the students take too many courses, listen to too many lec

tures, and do too little themselves. At Harvard, students are seldom allowed to take more than one course, and are expected to carry on vigorous laboratory or library work, so that they may acquire the proper methods for their own school work. The probable effect on the future of the University is easy to see. Of the students of the Summer School this year, probably not more than one seventh have ever been students of Harvard College, and not more than one fifth have been in former Summer Schools; fully two thirds of the students are here for the first time. They go out throughout the country as centres of Harvard information and influence; they are likely to aid in bringing their own schools into closer relations with the College; and through the Harvard Teachers' Association, to which they are admitted, it is hoped they will keep up a permanent connection with the University life. The course in English Literature has proceeded in the expectation that the students will keep up their reading, and return in 1896 for a second series of exercises.

TABLE OF STUDENTS ATTENDING THE SUMMER SCHOOL. 1887-1895.

At no time for many years have so many visitors found their way to

Visitors.

the College precincts as during the past summer. On one day during the Christian Endeavor Convention nearly two thousand strangers were in and about the grounds. The principal centres of attraction are Memorial Hall and the glass flowers of the Botanical Museum, which have proved an inexhaustible source of pleasure to visitors. The fact that most of the buildings are unmarked, and that there are so many outlying parts of the University, has given opportunity to numerous guides. It is harassing to one who knows the College to hear the stone building which projects into the Yard called Harvard Hall, and to have Hollis pointed out as the building in which Washington roomed when he was a student. Possibly summer work might be found for some of the undergraduates, and the University might make itself better known if a body of official guides were instituted, who might give more accurate information about the University, its resources, and its habits of life than is furnished by the school-boys and scouts who turn the honest pennies of the visiting public.

The A. B

The dissatisfaction with the terms upon which the A. B. degree is now obtained still continues in the College Faculty. There seems to degree. be a feeling on the one hand that the minimum work upon which the degree is voted is too low, and on the other hand that eighteen courses, well and thoroughly done, are a severer requirement under the present conditions of extensive study than was the same number ten years ago. The Faculty has now for nearly two years at intervals discussed the question how these two extremes may be brought nearer together. Two successive reports of a committee to consider the question failed of acceptance, and in November, 1894, a new committee was appointed to consider "the forms and grounds of the degrees of A. B. and A. M." That committee reported toward the end of the College year, and the Faculty distinctly committed itself to the principle that the present system of marking by five grades should be changed for a plan of marking by only three grades, "failed," "passed," and "creditable" or "good." This change, if carried out, of course will require an alteration of the whole present system of "honorable mention" and degrees with distinction. The Faculty further showed a disposition to limit the number of extra courses, with the feeling, apparently, that it was not wise to encourage even the best men to take a large number of courses in any one year. Here the discussion closed for the time without any definite action; but it is expected that the subject will come up again in the autumn. The three-year degree is inevitably involved in this discussion. The proposed rule that no student be allowed to take more than five courses would make it nearly impossible for any man to do the work of the A. B. in

three years, and in fact only three men at the last Commencement were considered to have shown a case for such a degree. On the other hand, the Faculty seems to intend to set a higher minimum standard; just before Commencement it cut off nineteen delinquent Seniors, at the very end of their course. It is evident that there will be no peace in the University until this question is definitely settled. The present system of making exceptions in individual cases through the recommendation of a special committee hardly seems to be a permanent adjustment of the

matter.

Closely bound up with the question of the A. B. is that of the higher degrees. Should the conditions for obtaining the A. B. be di- Higher minished, either in time or in number of courses, the A. M. would degrees. either stand farther away from the A. B. or would need to be put upon a more moderate footing than at present. The Administrative Board of the Scientific School favors the creation of an "S. M.," Master of Science, which shall have a relation to the lower degree of S. B. The degree of Ph. D. begins to assume the importance which was hoped for it when it was founded twenty-three years ago. At the last Commencement sixteen Ph. D.'s and two S. D.'s were granted, a number never equaled except in 1894. Nevertheless, considering the 270 students in the Graduate School, the number of those who reach the highest distinction obtainable by a student is small. Many Harvard men, to be sure, take their degrees abroad; but the Graduate School incompletely fulfils its purpose if it holds students only one or two years. An evidence of the value put upon this degree is the application for candidacy by students pursuing scientific and non-professional courses of investigation in the Medical School. By recent action of the University Council steps have been taken to provide for such candidacy for the Ph. D. and S. D., and to bring into relations with the graduate instruction offered by the College the highly advanced work now done in the Medical School. The Faculty also sent to the Corporation last year a proposition for the establishment of "Docents," holders of the Ph. D. degree who shall offer courses of an advanced character to graduate students, no returns of such courses to be made to the Office. Such a scheme ought to add much to the teaching force of the University, and to stimulate both the docents and the professors in whose fields they offer instruction.

Several new scholarships have been created during the year, but no additional fellowships. The total number of appointments of Fellowthis kind is now 24, with a total value of $11,925 per year. ships. Those appointments are highly prized, not only for the opportunity for