Report of the Commissioner of Education Made to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year ... with Accompanying Papers

AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

The thirty-second annual session of this association was held in Richmond, Va., May 3, 1881. The subjects under discussion related mainly to medical practice and not to the elevation of standards in medical colleges or other educational topics. The question of admitting homœopathic students to the courses at regular schools, which has been a burning one for several years, after an animated and eloquent debate, was finally disposed of by a compromise. The homoeopath is to be allowed an education, but not a diploma. Dr. J. J. Woodward, Assistant Surgeon-General, Washington, D. C., was chosen president of the association for 1881-'82.

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY.

This association, starting in 1881, grew from a similar one, the Victoria Institute, in England, whose object is the creation and distribution of literature illustrating the relations between science and religion. As many of its ablest papers were from this side of the Atlantic, it occurred to some of the Christian scholars of America that a similar organization should be attempted in this country.

The attempt was experimental, but largely successful. Rev. Dr. Deems, pastor of the Church of the Strangers, in New York, who had for years been a member of the British Institute, and Rev. Amory H. Bradford, pastor of the Congregational Church of Mont Clair, N. J., made an effort to ascertain whether 10 gentlemen could be found who would deliver a course of lectures in the line of the relations of science and religion. The response was such that a syllabus was made out. William O. McDowell, esq., engaged to build a hall to be used for these lectures on a beautiful property of his called Warwick Woodlands, on the west side of Greenwood Lake, at a railroad terminus 40 miles from New York City; and having secured an encamping hotel he offered to pay the fees and expenses of the lecturers. The course was opened July 12, 1881, with a lecture by Dr. Deems on "The cry of conflict," followed on the 13th by one from President Porter, of Yale College, on "What we mean by Christian philosophy;" on Thursday, the 14th, by Prof. Borden P. Bowne, of Boston University, on "Some difficulties of modern materialism;" on Friday, 15th, by Prof. Stephen Alexander, of Princeton, on the "Origin and primitive state of man;" on Saturday, 16th, by Prof. C. A. Young, of Princeton, on "Astronomical facts for philosophical thinkers." On Sunday a large gathering listened to a sermon from Rev. A. H. Bradford, of Mont Clair, N. J. On Monday, 18th, the course was resumed with a lecture by Prof. Alexander Winchell, of the University of Michigan, on "The philosophical consequences of evolution," followed on Tuesday, 19th, by Rev. Lyman Abbott, D. D., of New York City, on the "Foundations of Christian belief;" on Wednesday, 20th, by Rev. J. H. McIlvaine, of Newark, N. J., on "Science and revelation;" Thursday, 21st, by Prof. B. N. Martin, of the University of New York, on "Recent physical theories in their bearing on teleology;" and lastly, Friday, 22d, by President John Bascom, of the University of Wisconsin, on "The gains and losses of faith by science."

On the 21st of July, while this course was in process, a meeting was held in the hall of philosophy, when the American Institute of Christian Philosophy was organized, a prospectus issued, and Rev. Charles F. Deems, D. D., LL. D., was elected provisional president, Rev. Amory H. Bradford, provisional secretary, and William O. McDowell, provisional treasurer. The first monthly meeting was held at Warwick Woodlands, August 28, 1881, and the following gentlemen were elected vice presidents: John Bascom, LL. D., of Wisconsin; Hon. Kemp P. Battle, LL. D., of North Carolina; Rev. Bishop Charles Edward Cheney, of Illinois; and General G. W. Custis Lee, of Virginia. It was ordered that the future monthly meetings be held in the parlors of the Church of the Strangers, where the second and third monthly meetings were held, at the last of which the committee on by laws reported a system of laws, which was adopted.-(Christian Philosophy Quarterly, 1881.)

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

The thirtieth annual meeting of this association met in Cincinnati August 17, 1881. Prof. G. J. Brush, of the Yale Scientific School, in the chair. The venerable retiring president, Hon. Lewis H. Morgan, absent on account of sickness, took leave of the society in a touching letter. The meeting was a most important one, whether viewed in reference to the numbers in attendance, the high standing of the members in their various specialties, or the bearing upon science and real life of the subjects discussed. The topics presented before the several sections were too numerous for special mention here; among them were the following, arranged according to a new schedule adopted at this

meeting: In the section of mathematics and astronomy, "Method of determining the solar parallax from meridian observations of Mars at opposition," by J. R. Eastman, of Washington, D. C.; "Wave lengths of the principal lines of the solar spectrum," by T. C. Mendenhall, of Columbus, Ohio, and a report from a committee of eminent astronomers on new standards of stellar magnitudes; in the section of physics, "Electricity, magnetism, gravitation, considered as manifestations of one force," by S. S. Parsons, Lodi, Ohio; in the section of chemistry in its application to agriculture and the arts, "Coal dust as an element of danger in mining," by H. C. Hovey, of New Haven, Conn.; "Amylose," "Mixed sugars," and the "Composition and quality of American wines" received attention, as well as "The development of sugar in maize and sorghum," the writers on the last two being Henry B. Parsons and Peter Collier, both of Washington, D. C.; in the section of mechanical science, "Suggestions for improvement in the manufacture of glass and new methods for the construction of large telescopic lenses" was presented by G. W. Holley, of Niagara Falls, New York; in the section of geology and geography, came "On the cause of the arid climate of the western portion of the United States" and "The excavation of the grand cañon of the Colorado River," both by Capt. C. E. Dutton, of Washington, D. C., and also "A short study of the features of the region of the lower Great Lakes during the great river age; or, Notes on the origin of the Great Lakes of North America," by J. W. Spencer, of Windsor, Nova Scotia, and “Evidence from the drift of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, in support of the preglacial origin of the basins of Lakes Erie and Ontario," by E. W. Claypole, of Yellow Springs, Ohio; in the section of biology, "A contribution to the study of the bacterial organisms commonly found upon exposed mucous surfaces and in the alimentary canal of healthy individuals;" in the section of anthropology, a lengthy and learned paper on "The gesture speech of man," by Col. Garrick Mallery, U. s. A., with another on "A lawgiver of the stone age," by Horatio Hale, of Clinton, Canada, descriptive of the formation by Hiawatha of the great league of the Six Indian Nations of New York.

Before the close of the session, action was taken, with considerable decision, on the practice which it was ascertained was growing up of conferring the degrees of doctor of philosophy and doctor of science honoris causa, instead of as an earned reward for scientific work and high attainments in philosophic study. The revelations made, in the discussion on this point, of the lavish way in which degrees are given went far to show the need of repressive action in other directions than the two specifically referred to.-(Proceedings of the thirtieth meeting, 1881.)

APPENDIX.

STATISTICAL TABLES

RELATING TO

EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

319

TABLE I.- PART 1.- Statistics of the school systems of the States and Territories, showing c.; from replies to inquiries by the