the adoption of the Federal Constitution, colleges had been chartered in 12 of the original 13 States, had been organized in 9, and were organized in the remaining 4 within 14 years of the date of the Constitution. The University of North Carolina, which was not chartered until 1789, was organized 8 years after the adoption of the Constitution. Zeal for learning was diffused throughout the country at that early period, and has remained a common characteristic to the present day. The familiar expression, "learned professions," explains the affiliation of professional schools with colleges, illustrated, as we have seen, in the case of 93 of the colleges included in the table under consideration. The practical realization of the university ideal may, perhaps, be regarded as a feature of the recent history of learning in the United States; but that the ideal itself had early recognition among us, the organization of the University of Virginia and the charter schemes of several others bear witness. The unwarrantable use of the word "university" in many cases tends to confuse the mind as to the actual growth and promise of institutions which are undoubtedly destined to become seats of universal learning and potential sources of truth and progress. Twenty-five universities included in Table 39 are State institutions, whose development will be limited only by the will and resources of their respective Commonwealths. The majority of these must be regarded as merely the expression of a grand purpose, but several have already achieved honorable places in the roll of recognized universities. The universities founded in recent years by private munificence show similar diversity of character-here a promise whose fulfilment depends wholly upon the future, there a large and vigorous reality. The true status of those superior institutions, which comprise several departments, is not easily discerned when the departments are presented in separate tables. For this reason an effort has been made in the following pages to exhibit, in a synoptic view, several institutions which make provision for undergraduate courses in arts and science, and for graduate and professional courses. The tables are merely tentative, and include only such institutions as had furnished information available for use in the form desired. Time was wanting for the special correspondence that would have been necessary to make the tables complete in respect to the number of institutions. The schemes of superior instruction here displayed appear to be substantially the same for the entire country. Johns Hopkins University presents the simplest organization, including under the single philosophical faculty, provisions similar to those offered elsewhere in distinct colleges or schools. As yet this university has no professional department, but the creation of a medical school is foreshadowed in a preliminary course in medicine. Provision for graduate instruction is a notable feature of several of the institutions here presented. To them must be credited 43 per cent. of all the graduate students reported for the year. This is exclusive of students in professional courses who had received a collegiate degree. As a rule, professional courses in the United States are not post-graduate courses. The statistics for the current year show that, of medical students in the regular school, only 6 per cent. had received a degree in arts or science; of law students, 23 per cent.; of theological students, 21 per cent. The proportion of such students in the professional departments, included in the tables under consideration, is higher than for the country at large. It should be observed that the ratio given for theological students does not fairly represent the standard of preparation required in the schools of theology, as the Roman Catholics and some other denominations maintain classical seminaries whose students pass on to the theological course without receiving a degree, although their training has been substantially the same as that afforded by the arts colleges. The development of graduate courses of instruction stimulates efforts for raising the standard of professional training. The chief obstacle to the success of these efforts appears to be the length of time and the increased expense to the student involved in the more extended course. This difficulty would be measurably overcome by endowments for the professional schools, which would make them less dependent upon tuition fees, and by adaptations of the college or graduate curriculum, which would shorten the period of study for the B. A. degree. With respect to the latter point, President Eliot, of Harvard University, observes in his report for 1885-86: "The average age at which Harvard graduates get the degree of bachelor of arts is about twenty-two years and seven months. If such bachelors of arts then spend four years in the study of medicine, they are twenty-six years and seven months old when they are ready to begin the practice of their profession. The faculty consider this unreasonable postponement of entrance into practice a serious evil which it is their duty to combat, since more than half of their students-and that much the best half-are graduates of colleges or scientific schools. They therefore laid before the Academic Council in June last a plan for the abridgment of the college course by those students who go from college directly into one of the professional schools of the university. The subject could not be taken up satisfactorily by the council at the close of the year, but it has been under discussion in the year now current, and will receive the most careful consideration. That a great evil has been pointed out is generally admitted-an evil which affects American colleges quite as unfavorably as it does professional schools." 66 The consideration of the several classes under which the colleges and the universities of the United States may be presented will, it is hoped, suffice to show that superior instruction in this country is rapidly assuming definite character as regards both its instruments and its purposes. As the process goes on, pretentious institutions are naturally overborne and finally disappear, while those that have a name to endure" strike their roots deeper and deeper into the community. For a full view of the equipment of the colleges and universities the reader is referred to the columns of Table 39, showing the number of instructors, the property valuation, productive funds, &c. TABLE 34.--Statistics of selected corporations having combined faculties for undergraduate courses in arts and science and one or more professional schools. a Auxiliary medical department reporting 5 in faculty and 23 students; department of veterinary medicine-faculty, 10; additional instructors, 5; students, 44. TABLE 35.-Statistics of selected corporations which are organized in departments, each department comprising a group of schools. |