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Statistical summary of students in institutions for superior instruction (not including students in preparatory departments).

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The statistics of colleges and universities show slight losses at a few points and moderate gains at others. Colleges and students are fewer this year than last. The income from productive funds has diminished, but the resources of colleges have increased. They have more property at their disposal and a larger force of teachers. Here and there an institution has enlarged its courses or given to them greater flexibility or closer adapta

tion to public needs. Some additional institutions have adopted the practice of admitting without examination the graduates of approved high schools. Other institutions have held examinations for admission in distant cities where they have not been held before. Several State universities have received public appropriations sufficient to insure them against immediate necessity and, in some cases, to provide for future needs. Incentives to study have been increased by additional prizes and fellowships. More stringent rules relative to conferring degrees have occasionally been adopted. The conduct of students has received many favorable notices and internal dissensions have not prevailed to any great degree.

COLLEGE HYGIENE.

Prof. Edward Hitchcock, M. D., of Amherst College, Mass., has issued a report on his twenty years' experience in the department of physical education and hygiene in that institution. Heavy gymnastics are not commended by him to the mass of students. Dumb bells weighing about a pound each are approved, and exercise with them is taken for 20 or 30 minutes each afternoon, toward the evening. This has been found the most practicable time. Reliance is not placed on exercise alone for maintaining health. Attention is paid to cleanliness, care of the digestive organs, relaxation from mental effort, &c. Athletic sports are encouraged, but not unduly stimulated. The average development and health of students during their course have been satisfactory. The increase of height from freshman to senior year has been from 67.33 to 67.94 inches; of weight, from 133 to 142 pounds; of chest girth, from 34.76 to 35.97 inches; and of lung capacity, from 233 to 251 cubic inches. The diseases incident to students are principally colds, pneumonia, and throat difficulties. About 40 per cent. of sickness arises from these causes, 9 per cent. from physical injuries, 5 per cent. from febrile complaints, and nearly as much from weak and sore eyes. The average time lost by students on account of sickness has been 2.65 days yearly. Instruction in anatomy, physiology, and hygiene is given in freshman and sophomore years.

GROWTH OF YALE COLLEGE.

The president of Yale College has this year issued the first of a proposed series of reports on the progress of that institution and the changes within it. Once in five years a similar report will be presented to the alumni and distributed to the public. This one covers 15 years. During this period the officers of government and instruction in all the departments have increased from 49 to 108; the students, from 682 to 1,037. The academic staff has increased from 12 professors and 8 tutors to 22 professors and 9 tutors. The graduate department has increased from a single professor and 4 or 5 students to 6 professors and 29 students. The college library has 102,000 volumes against 46,000 in 1865-'66. The Peabody museum has been provided and is made of great service in the study of natural history and kindred sciences. Eight buildings have been erected and $70,000 have been expended in permanent improvements. The aggregate addition to the wealth of the college is more than $2,500,000. Of instruction in the academical department President Porter says:

The three lower classes are taught in smaller divisions and the divisions themselves are graded according to scholarship. In the junior and senior classes arrangements for optional studies in the afternoon have been matured and a liberal variety of such studies is offered, and as much time has been allotted to the optional system as, in our opinion, is practicable or desirable. The optional studies are assigned to the afternoon, four in each week, and are so arranged as to provide for continuous study for from one to several terms in all the principal departments of science and letters.

ELECTIVE SYSTEMS.

Elective systems of instruction in colleges have been increasing in favor and have been adopted or extended by several institutions within a few years. Sufficient time has elapsed to warrant inquiry as to results. Theories have been tested practically, and the

advantages and disadvantages of allowing students a choice of studies have been weighed against each other in college halls under the eyes of vigilant observers, whose testimony may be accepted as strong evidence of the appropriateness and value of the elective system. One of the most prominent objections was that students would elect studies requiring the least effort. This has not been found a common practice. In Columbia College, New York City

The great body of young men in college are really interested in study. They appreciate the value of their opportunities and are earnestly desirous to improve them to the best advantage. They select their studies, when free to do so, with an intuitive recognition of those which they are most capable of mastering, and from which therefore they are conscious that they will derive the greatest profit.

Dr. A. P. Peabody, some time ago, said of the manner in which the power of choice was exercised at Harvard College:

I think that at first there was in the choice of studies a good deal of caprice, wantonness, and haphazard; but with every year the choice has become more and more a serious matter, a subject of careful forethought and forecast, insomuch that there are some of our late freshman class who have, with suitable advice, drawn up written schemes, and very judicious ones, of a course of study extending through the remaining three years.

The choice of subjects made by students freely exercising their taste and judgment bears out the opinions presented and shows a sufficient adherence proportionately to the studies usually constituting college curricula. The number of courses of instruction in the principal departments of collegiate study in Michigan University and the number of students in them present at examination were reported last year. In history there were 11 courses, 582 students; in Latin, 13 courses, 527 students; Greek, 13 courses, 413 students; German, 7 courses, 381 students; French, 8 courses, 315 students; English, 10 courses, 409 students; philosophy, 4 courses, 195 students; mathematics, 11 courses, 339 students; chemistry, 13 courses, 162 students; physics, 6 courses, 113 students; zoology, 6 courses, 117 students; geology, 9 courses, 73 students. Many other departments were represented by fewer courses and students. Those mentioned show the prominence of English and linguistic studies. At Johns Hopkins University, 1880-'81, the number of students in attendance on courses in mathematics was 31; physics, 35; chemistry, 40; biology, 25; Greek, 31; Latin, 40; German, 55; French, Italian, &c., 33; English, 29; history, 40. "In Harvard College," says Prof. Charles F. Dunbar, "it does not appear that the tendency of the elective system has been to develop abnormally any particular class of studies." Classical literature has received slightly less attention. Modern languages have maintained their ground. History has gained heavily. Mathematics remains singularly constant. Physics, chemistry, and natural history attract a slightly increasing number of students. In Columbia College, the inferences drawn from a tabular statement of elective work during junior and senior years by President F. A. P. Barnard are as follows:

It appears from the foregoing that the ancient languages are chosen by a larger proportion of the class during the junior than during the senior year; that this proportion for Greek is more than two-thirds in the junior and about one-half during the senior year; for Latin it is five-sixths during the junior and a little less than one-half during the senior; also, that mathematics is chosen by more than three-fourths of the juniors and by only about one-fifth of the seniors. The small number in this latter class is accounted for by the fact that the mathematics of the senior year is the differential and integral calculus, which is only selected by those who have a special aptitude for this class of studies. Physics is a favorite study in both years and was chosen in the year under. consideration by nearly the entire number in each class. Of the modern languages, French and German are selected by about a third of the juniors and by about one in eight or ten of the seniors; Italian comes next, and Spanish is the choice of the smallest number. Botany, which was not offered at the beginning of the year, was chosen only by nine juniors.

Of the studies which are elective in the senior year only, geology was, during the year ending June, 1881, elected by every member of the class and astronomy by all but one; about three-fifths selected chemistry, two-fifths philosophy, and one-fifth political economy. Logic, history, and English literature do not appear in the above lists, as these studies are obligatory on all students.

The effect of the elective system on scholarship has been excellent. The studies selected are in harmony with the tastes and proclivities of the students and are pursued with interest and satisfaction. A transition from prescribed to elected studies is accompanied by an improvement in marks. But as some students are not conscious of their unfitness for certain studies and their fitness for others it is suggested that instructors, who have become familiar with the mental qualities and inclinations of pupils, both in preparatory schools and during the period of fixed studies, should be consulted in the preparation of a scheme of elective studies.

The general results of the elective system at Harvard College are summed up by President Eliot in a review of the annual report of the dean of the faculty, as follows: It is to be inferred from his account of the actual experience of the college during a period of ten years that the system does not tend to bring about the extinction of the traditional studies called liberal; because these studies, though pursued by a smaller proportion of students than formerly, are pursued by those who choose them with greater vigor and to better purpose than they were ever pursued as parts of a prescribed curriculum. The tables of the dean's report also indicate that the scientific turn of mind is comparatively rare among the young men who enter the college, a large majority of the students preferring languages, metaphysics, history, and political science to mathematics, physics, zoology, and botany. Whether this preference is the result of genuine natural predisposition or an effect of the training supplied by the secondary schools it would be hard to determine. Finally, whoever reads the history of the development of the elective system as it is recorded in the successive annual reports of the dean of the college faculty since 1870 will arrive at the well grounded conviction that every extension of the system has been a gain to the individual student, to the college, and to every interest of education and learning, and will also see reason to believe that the time is not far distant when the few subjects still prescribed for all students will in their turn become elective.

VARIATIONS IN COLLEGE ATTENDANCE.

The statistics of the colleges and universities of the country show the number of students in their collegiate departments to be 32,459. The ratio between the number of students and the entire population, whether in the whole country or in the individual States or in groups of States, has much significance and interest. Schools of science form a distinct class of schools, and therefore may be omitted in the consideration of this question, though they have courses of study as advanced as those commonly pursued in colleges and often nearly identical with the scientific courses of classical institutions. The influence of students and graduates of scientific and classical schools is not greatly different, socially or politically. The mental discipline and the acquisitions of the two classes fit them for responsibilities equally burdensome and important. If the frequency with which young people are availing themselves of opportunities for gaining higher education would be ascertained definitely, schools of science and institutions for the higher instruction of women should be taken into account. But many indications may be obtained from approximate figures relating to the relative attendance of youth in distinctly collegiate institutions in different sections of the country.

There is in the United States 1 college student to 1,545 inhabitants. The number of inhabitants of a State for each student attending college within it varies greatly. Connecticut has 655 inhabitants for each student in its colleges; Tennessee and Maryland, about 800; Massachusetts, a little less than a thousand; California, a little more. At the other end of the list are Vermont and several of the States in the Southwest, which have more than three thousand inhabitants to a student in their own colleges. These figures do not represent the number of students from any particular State pursuing collegiate studies. They are approximately correct for the larger States South and West; they are entirely misleading when applied to New England. Comparatively few persons are found in southern colleges who reside out of the State, except in the cases of noted universities and of colleges located near the State boundary. The same is, to a smaller extent, true in the West.

In New England there are 1,034 inhabitants for each student in the colleges of its six States and 1,526 inhabitants for each resident of New England in its colleges. Maine has 1 student in college in New England for each 1,310 inhabitants; New Hampshire,

1 for 1,983; Vermont, 1 for 1,477; Massachusetts, 1 for 1,393; Rhode Island, 1 for 2,049; and Connecticut, 1 for 1,946. Thus Vermont, which has only 1 student in its colleges for every 3,000 inhabitants, has more students according to its population than Connecticut, though the latter State has one student in its colleges for every 655 inhabitants. Reasons for this are apparent. One of them may be discussed here, since it largely determines whether there will be more students from a State or in a State. It is the presence of well known and richly endowed colleges. The colleges of Vermont are small and limited in means. Just beyond the boundary of the State are Dartmouth and Williams. The former has 47 Vermont students; the latter, 14. Amherst College is but little more distant and has 12. Harvard and Yale are near enough to attract several. More than one-half of Vermont's students are in colleges outside of the State. The condition of affairs is quite different in Connecticut. Her students are largely in her own institutions. Other States send thither their sons: Maine, 30; New Hampshire, 13; Vermont, 10; Massachusetts, 65; New York, 200; New Jersey, 30; Pennsylvania, 90; and the States of the West are well represented.

It does not appear that the proportion of college students is so much smaller in the older Southern States east of the Mississippi than in New England as many would suppose. One student for 1,700 inhabitants is not far from a just average. A much smaller proportion is reported as in their colleges. But the same inequality exists here as in the States above mentioned. For instance, South Carolina has reported only one student to 3,270 inhabitants. Had every one of its colleges reported, it would have shown a larger proportion of students. A further increase must be made, not only because the State does not educate all its students, but also because almost no students from outside attend its colleges. There are as many students from South Carolina in Yale and Harvard as there are collegiate students in South Carolina from other States, so far as can be ascertained by the catalogues of the colleges of that State for the present year possessed by the Office, and nearly all are in its files. The case of Tennessee is different. It has a large student population from other States. Vanderbilt University alone has nearly 400 such students. In 1880 it registered 31 from Texas, 38 from Kentucky, 35 from Alabama, 14 from Georgia, 7 from Louisiana, 4 from South Carolina, 19 from Arkansas, 23 from Mississippi, and a small number from nearly every one of the Southern and Central States.

It would seem that there has been an increase not only in the absolute number, but also in the relative proportion of college students during the last fifty years; but it is essential to bear in mind that the facilities for gathering such statistics available half a century ago were far inferior to those existing at present. Then 44 institutions reported 4,021 students. At least 13 other colleges existed. If their attendance was on the average the same as that of the 44 reporting, the entire number of students may be estimated at 5,200, about one-sixth of the present number. The population then was a little more than one-fourth as large as in 1880. The establishing of colleges north of the Ohio had only commenced. Five of the 36 colleges in Ohio, 1 of the 15 in Indiana, and 1 of the 28 in Illinois had been founded and in them were gathering small knots of students around the few energetic men that were the soul of these ventures. South of the Ohio River and Pennsylvania and east of the Mississippi 25 colleges, with 1,229 students, were reported in the spring of 1831 to the American Quarterly Register, where now there are 92 colleges, with 7,757 students. Then there was 1 student to about 4,000 inhabitants. North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee fell below this average. Now North Carolina and Tennessee have more students relatively than the average of Southern States. Virginia and South Carolina have proportionately fewer now than fifty years

ago.

In New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania there was 1 student for 3,430 inhabitants in 1830; now there is 1 for 1,577 inhabitants. Then New York had comparatively the fewest students in college; now it has the most. Its 4 colleges have multiplied to 27. Union College, then far ahead in point of numbers, has been outstripped by two of the colleges of New York City. In New Jersey students have increased slightly more rap

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