TABLE 30.-Statistical summary of students in institutions for superior instruction, &c.Continued.

Table 32 presents the statistics of 204 institutions reporting under the head of superior instruction for women. These had 2,123 instructors and 27,143 students distribnted as follows so far as known: Preparatory 6,688, regular 13,206, normal course 107, special 1,254, advanced 164.

By reference to the column showing productive funds it will be noticed that 13 of the institutions report none and 161 make no report under that head. Of the remainder, 19 report productive funds yielding incomes less than $2,000, 6 realize incomes from their productive funds ranging from $2,000 to $5,000, 1 an income of $8,945, and 4 incomes as follows: Mt. Holyoke, $11,000; Wellesley College, $23,371; Buffalo Female Academy, $24,000; Friends' College, Bryn Mawr, $40,000.

The lack of endowments, which is a serious drawback to this class of schools, seems the more surprising when it is remembered that the patrons of the schools are found largely among the wealthier classes. The facts suggest a want of appreciation on their part of the essentials of a vigorous educational work, which the schools themselves might possibly correct by well-organized efforts. It is noticeable that in the distribution of benefactions for the year, as shown in Table 84, page 673, the class of schools under consideration received only $266,285, or a little more than 4 per cent. of the total reported. Of this amount $124,072 were donated to 4 institutions in Massachusetts, and $100,000 to a college in Ohio, leaving $42,213 to be distributed among the rest of the schools.

About two-thirds of the institutions tabulated are authorized by law to confer degrees; these offer a curriculum closely resembling the ordinary college course; greater option, however, seems to be allowed than in the colleges for men, and, as a rule, modern languages engage more attention than the classics. On the whole the experience of these schools seems to indicate that identity of training for the two sexes is not as yet generally demanded in the United States. This fact becomes even more evident upon an examination of the courses of study usually followed by the women students in co-education colleges. There are, of course, notable exceptions to this general tendency. Thus among the superior institutions for women are found colleges like Smith, Wellesley, and Bryn Mawr, where the customary college standards are maintained, and in the co-education colleges women are found rivalling men in the successful pursuit of the severest studies. With respect, however, to much of the work represented in the table before us, the term "superior" must be taken in a soniewhat different sense from the same term as applied to the intellectual discipline and culture afforded in the leading colleges for men. The recognition of this difference makes it easy to understand why women, who are conscious of superior intellectual powers, or who foresee the need of an equipment for intellectual work which will en

able them to compete with men for remunerative employment, should press for admission to institutions like Harvard and Columbia. It is interesting to note in this connection that the report of the president of Columbia College for 1885 included in the roll of students 13 matriculated in the collegiate course for women.

The Lasell Seminary, Auburndale, Mass., has made an endeavor, and apparently a successful one, to develop a scheme of instruction specially adapted to the practical needs of women upon whom will devolve the obligations and cares of domestic and social life. It includes careful instruction in anatomy and physiology, accompanied by lectures given by a well-known physician; also lectures on the principles of common law given by a lawyer of note, and lectures, lessons, and practice "in the arts of domestic life, the principles of dress, artistic house furnishing, healthy homes, cooking, marketing, and all the principles which underlie the wisest management of homes." It is gratifying to know that the effort to establish such courses of instruction and training have met with the cordial approval of patrons and others interested in the cause of woman's education. Surely experiments of this kind, which recognize the special wants of a very large and influential class of American women, deserve no less encouragement than the efforts to secure to them the highest opportunities for general intellectual development and culture.

Statistics in detail of schools for the superior instruction of women will be found in Table 32. The following is a comparative summary of institutions, instructors, and pupils, from 1876 to 1886, inclusive (1883 omitted):

TABLE 31.-Summary of statistics of institutions for the superior instruction of women.

TABLE 32.-Statistics of institutions for the superior instruction of women for

*From Report of the Commissioner of Education for year 1884-'85.