instruction given in the primary commercial school for boys. The school year 1903-4 opened with 23 girl pupils.

MUNICH.

In the Riemerschmidt Commercial School 603 girls applied for admission in 1902, of which number 139 were rejected. This school was established by private enterprise, the city of Munich assuming control of it about two years ago. The following figures show the growth of the school:

The subjects taught include English, French, stenography, typewriting, history, and vocal music.

RÉSUMÉ.

It will be seen from these statements that there is an educational movement beginning in Germany which is fraught with far-reaching consequences. Berlin has set the pace, and the other cities will not be long in following suit. The same methods which have been applied with such remarkable success to the training of boy apprentices in the industrial and commercial schools of the Empire are now to be adopted for the education and training of girls who may seek to better their condition in life. They will then swell the ranks of that trained army of experts which has accomplished more than any other one factor to make German commerce and industries what they are to-day.

EIBENSTOCK, GERMANY, September 18, 1903.

ERNEST L. HARRIS,

Commercial Agent.

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF LIBERIA.

Within the last five years the educational progress of Liberia has been very rapid, and to-day conditions will compare favorably with those of any country with similar opportunities. The credit for this gratifying situation is due primarily to the interest and efforts of the officials of the Liberian Government, aided by the Colonization Society of the city of Washington, D. C., the New York Colonization Society, and the Boston Board of the College of Liberia. These several forces have directed the educational system of the Republic with such intelligent effort that in many sections the public school system is equal in effectiveness to that of many sections of the United States.

In the towns of Monrovia, Clay, Ashland, Cape Palmas, Edina, and Greenville the schools will compare favorably with some of the American city primary schools. In every civilized settlement there is a Government school. It is now proposed to open a school in every large native settlement near the cities.

Liberia College was closed for two or three years prior to 1898. The legislature of that year passed an act making a liberal appropriation for its support and empowered the local board to resume work, and the college was reopened in 1899. Its work has gone on improving each year, until now it has four regular college classes. The senior class to be graduated soon is composed of six most promising negro youths. The sophomore class contains six young women-daughters of prominent

families. These are the first females ever entered at Liberia College. The entire number of students in the college is 160, of whom 110 are in the preparatory department.

In addition to the schools conducted by the Government, a number of educational institutions are conducted by the representatives of various churches and societies of the United States and other countries, among which are those of the Protestant Episcopal Church at Cape Palmas and Cape Mount; the Methodist Episcopal Church at Monrovia and at White Plains; the Lutherans at Muellenburg Station, on the St. Paul River, and those of the Presbyterians, Baptists, and African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The one thing lacking to complete the system is a first-class industrial school, where experiments in agriculture, dairying, cattle raising, etc., could be made. Such an institution would be far-reaching in its effect on the advancement of the African people. JAMES ROBERT SPURGEON,

MONROVIA, LIBERIA, August 15, 1903.

Chargé d'Affaires.

INDUSTRIAL SUPPLEMENTARY SCHOOLS IN GERMANY.

[In its issue of October 1, 1903, Handel und Gewerbe says, under the above title:] The fourth session of the German society, "Trade and Industry," passed the following resolutions:

1. The establishment of a compulsory industrial continuation or supplementary school is of pressing necessity, owing to economic, social, and educational reasons. Further developing industrial instruction is a necessary factor in industrial education. 2. It is necessary that compulsory attendance at these schools be made general by law, and, if they are to produce good results, at least four to six hours weekly should be devoted to study. The development of the schools, in particular, should be left

to law.

3. Such schools are to serve industrial life and to satisfy the demands made on young men by professional life.

In its broader sense, therefore, every industrial school should have the character of a professional school. If possible, the classes should be arranged by professions, and only those belonging to the same or related industries, according to their previous training, should be placed in the same class. The entire system of teaching must be based, as far as the teaching force and material taught are concerned, upon the callings or trades of the students.

4. The importance of industrial training, in addition to teaching in the workshop, regard for the stage of development reached by the pupil, and his lessened capacity for receptivity on account of weariness induced in the shop, demands that as far as possible instruction be given during the day.

5. Industrial instruction demands skillful teachers and should be intrusted only to such as possess the necessary industrial training coupled with a capacity for teaching. So far as practically educated artisans comply with these qualifications, they are to be preferred for giving instruction. Opportunities should be given them to assimilate pedagogical ideas. However, sufficiently informed teachers, who, when opportunities were offered, placed themselves in touch with practical ideas, may, and should, be intrusted with this kind of instruction.

6. Supplementary schools of guilds and societies of artisans, managed like the State schools, would be of great assistance.

7. In the management of these schools the cooperation of artisans will strengthen the work materially.

8. It need not be feared that the establishment of these schools will be detrimental to existing private professional schools; it is to be supposed rather that a benefit will accrue by a proper limitation.

9. In these schools it will be possible to separate the young worker from the apprentice.

Agricultural schools in Spain.—United States Vice-Consul Adolphe Danziger, writing from Madrid under date of October 12, 1903, says that the Government of Spain is to open 14 agricultural schools in various parts of the peninsula. They are to be practical means of educating farmers, not only in regard to the crops raised, but in the use of agricultural machinery and implements. While they will be governmental institutions, the contracts to equip them will be let to private parties, and bids are soon to be asked for.

ADMISSION OF WOMEN TO A GERMAN UNIVERSITY.

The University of Munich has, with the beginning of this semester, opened its doors to women students. This is a very decided step forward in the educational history of Germany, particularly in the provisions made for the education of women. Hitherto no women were permitted to matriculate in the German universities. In several of them women have been permitted to attend lectures, and have been allowed to take their degrees upon examination by and with the consent of the faculties concerned, but it has always been a question even in the University of Heidelberg, which is one of the most liberal of the German universities, whether women should be admitted to a regular university course as matriculated students and enter into competition in university work with men students.

The most noted of German women who have been successful in their struggle for higher education have hitherto been obliged to go to Switzerland for their university work, and it is therefore a very decided departure on the part of the Government of Bavaria to concede this right to women, notwithstanding the fact that as yet there is no gymnasium under the aegis of Munich. Prominent educators of progressive tendencies have started a private foundation, and it is to be hoped that this private gymnasium for women will ultimately be accepted by the authorities as a regularly instituted gymnasium in the Kingdom. In other portions of Germany gymnasia for women have already been started and are said to be successful, and the students, it is reported, are taking high rank.

For the present the University of Munich limits its admission of women by regular matriculation to such as possess the abituria of a German gymnasium, and they are admitted to these noted German high schools only upon the same conditions as male students. Lady students of foreign birth, graduates of colleges, but who do not possess the German gymnasial abituria, are only admitted as hearers, and they may, with the consent of the faculty, pursue a course of study and finally come up for a degree, but they have not yet been conceded the same rights that are accorded to German female students having the gymnasial abituria.

The present rector of the University of Munich, Professor Doctor Kuhn, expresses himself as desirous of exercising all possible liberality toward American lady students, graduates of reputable colleges. He has, therefore, promised to second the petition of the United States consul-general to the Bavarian ministry of Cultus that American lady students possessing diplomas from reputable American colleges shall be conceded the same advantages that have been so generously conceded always by German universities to the graduates of reputable American colleges and universities. Under the concessions temporarily made, a number of American young ladies, graduates of Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith, also other colleges, have this term entered upon serious work in the University of Munich.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

MUNICH, GERMANY, October 22, 1903.

JAMES H. WORMAN,

Consul-General.

America and Germany as teachers.-Deutsche Export-Revue, a leading German industrial journal, in its issue of October 15, 1903, says:

An important work on the United States, by Wilhelm v. Polenz, "Das Land der Zukunft," has just appeared, and in view of the exposition which the United States is to hold nothing could have been more timely. He says:

"The most noteworthy surprise of the New World is that everyone with the power of discovery that goes thither is able to discover it anew, but no one is competent to write concerning the United States except those whose critical sense has been saturated by the powerful impressions of that wonderland. I have found that we are never so proud as when making a journey, but I have also noticed that our survey of the weakness of German life can never be so well impressed upon us as when we compare ourselves with another strong nation.

"It has become the fashion to wonder at American institutions and to consider them worthy of imitation; but it would be most unwise for us thoughtlessly to incorporate the American nature into our own life. That this young nation across the ocean should give birth to freer customs and more up-to-date accommodations than Europe in its narrowed sphere is natural, but it is as impossible to Americanize Europe as it would be to bring the United States to look at things from the standpoint of Europe. It is one thing to become absorbed into a strange people without resistance, as the German often does, to his harm, and another to endeavor to be just in regard to them. Boundless wonder should not seize us in regarding the United States, and in opposition to the unbounded possibilities' should be placed the saying of the Germans, 'Care will be taken that the trees do not grow to the heavens.'

'No extra-European nation has made such progress in all lines as has the United States. With no country have we had such traffic as with the United States. There are no two other nations which could learn more from each other, nor do any two nations so thoroughly fail to understand each other. Gigantic is the only word with which to measure the traffic between the shores of the two countries. The two peoples may touch each other outwardly in a hundred ways, but their souls do not meet. The roles have been changed. Whereas formerly, at least for a very long period of time, European influence was the dominant one in civilization, Europeanizing all people that it touched, to-day it is the United States that is Americanizing everything, even Europe. With no nation on earth has the Empire had closer relations than with the United States, particularly since 1870.”

MEDICAL SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS IN BERLIN AND PARIS.

German papers report that a congress for hygiene and physiological pedagogy was recently held at Paris. As a result Progrès Medical has drawn a comparison between the work of the school physicians in the German and the French capital, which is substantially in favor of the German method. The expert writing the article cautions especially against the inclination in France to overdo such efforts, which may lead to giving the physician a too far-reaching influence, and the possibility of meddling with the manner of school instruction and in more intimate relations.

He first reviews the rules for medical supervision over the public schools of Berlin. Every school physician has supervision over four schools, and his duties are to examine twice a year all the pupils who enter the school with reference to the senses, the spinal column, the development of the limbs, etc.; to make examination of those pupils who would be subject to receive instruction on account of stuttering or some other additional instruction; to make a quarterly inspection of the school rooms with reference to their sanitary condition; also of the health of the pupils and the presence of contagious diseases.

These examinations may take place oftener if requested by the school board.

In addition the State district physician has to inspect the local schools at least once every five years with reference to their architecture; he has also to prescribe the necessary measures in case of a threatened epidemic.

The principal of the school is held to send those pupils to the school physician whose state of health during the intervals of the official visits creates suspicion. It is especially pointed out that the school physician, according to the German rules, is

not to give the sick pupil orders or prescribe for him or her, but the parents are simply notified of the facts and receive written advice.

It is furthermore particularly important that the school physicians meet together in certain intervals, three or four times during a year. These measures are held by the French physician to be models for a reform of conditions in Paris. It appears to him indispensable, and it certainly does seem proper to have the pupils entering school examined separately by the school physician, as thereby it is possible to call the attention of the teachers from the beginning to the physical condition of the school children. The Paris rules go further, inasmuch as the school physicians are obliged to inspect their schools at least twice a month instead of only twice every half year.

The careful execution of the medical examination of the hygienic conditions of the school is the most important part of the duties of the school physicians.

Aside from this the medical treatment of the pupils must, as far as possible, be left to the home physicians, who usually have known the children for a longer time than the school physician, and therefore are better judges of the condition of their health.

In doubtful cases the advice of a specialist shall be sought rather than to demand of the school physician a far-reaching special knowledge, which might result in making a medical experimental station of the school.

In addition, the French physician proposes that the school physician should be entitled to view the condition of the dwellings of sick school children, and also to give advice concerning the architecture of schools and the division of the school hours.

FRANKFORT, GERMANY, December 4, 1903.

RICHARD GUENTHER,
Consul-General.

Public schools in Russia.—According to the latest statistics there are 84,544 public schools in the Empire of Russia, out of which number 40,131 are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Education, 42,588 under the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod, and the remainder under other departments. Of the pupils 73,167 were adults, 3,291,694 boys, and 1,203,902 girls. The teachers number 172,000. The maintenance of all these schools costs more than $25,000,000. The average school tax for city schools is $9.50 and for village schools $5 per pupil.—Samuel Smith, Consul, Moscow, Russia, January 2, 1904.

New system of measuring criminals.-The police of London have introduced experimentally a new measuring system for recognizing criminals. As it has been successful, it will soon be adopted by a number of other police departments both in England and abroad. In this system only the impressions of the fingers are taken. Compared with the "Bertillon" system, it has, above all, the advantage of simplicity, as it can be applied without any contrivances, and is therefore much less expensive. Whether it can completely take the place of the Bertillon system remains to be seen. The Berlin police have for the present also inaugurated a card collection of impressions of the fingers for recognition purposes. The new system is called "Daktyloscopy."-Richard Guenther, consul-general, Frankfort, Germany, December 15, 1903.

Commercial university for Berlin.-The Frankfurter Zeitung of December 20, 1903, states that the Prussian Government has approved the establishment of a commercial university for Berlin, which is to be called into existence by the corporation of the seniors of the Berlin merchants.-Richard Guenther, consul-general, Frankfort, Germany, December 22, 1903.