EDITOR'S TABLE. 



127 



will allow " time " for, and hygiene is 

 treated just as it has been these fifty 

 years. We only say, let the knowledge 

 that conduces to self-preservation be 

 taught first and thoroughly, and, if the 

 text-books are inadequate or the teach- 

 ers incompetent, turn them all out to- 

 gether and procure those that are hetter. 

 Professor Adams, we are happy to 

 say, makes an excellent showing of the 

 extent of scientific study in Michigan 

 University. But it seems we were at 

 fault in trusting the statements of Bish- 

 op Harris, who misrepresented some 

 things and was ignorant of others, while 

 the plaudits which he evolved were in- 

 tended rather for his rhetoric than his 

 ideas. Professor Adam.s intimates that 

 it was unfair to assume that the Bishop 

 spoke as the representative of the uni- 

 versity. But when a State Bishop is 

 brought out hefore a State institution 

 on an important occasion, and the cus- 

 tomary exercises are suspended in his 

 behalf, and he takes up the work of the 

 institution as his theme, certainly it 

 would not have been admissible in out- 

 siders to question his representation of 

 facts. Professor Adams gives an inter- 

 esting and most encouraging account of 

 the progress of scientific study in the 

 university, and we all owe thanks to 

 the Bishop for starting a discussion that 

 has brought out these excellent results, 

 and in which his inaccuracies have been 

 overruled for good. But we will try 

 to be more discriminating in future as 

 to whose statements are to be trusted. 



THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE FAIR. 



IxorsTEiAL exhibitions now seem 

 to have become a recognized part of 

 the machinery of trade. Those of a 

 merely local character are held in great 

 numbers and at many different points, 

 while those of international range are 

 of such frequent occurrence as to be 

 fast losing their novelty. Most of the 

 considerable cities of this country now 

 liave permanent organizations devoted 



to the giving of periodic fairs, while 

 States and counties vie with one another 

 in the same sort of work. The holding 

 of fairs is a very old practice in all civil- 

 ized countries ; and it has always been 

 made tributary to social gratification as 

 well as to commercial utility. Such ex- 

 hibitions are primarily a means of giving 

 publicity to the wares of manufacturers 

 and traders, but they are not without 

 a further value to the general public. 

 There must of necessity be a good deal 

 of repetition at the successive collec- 

 tions, but the rapid advances now made 

 in the arts insure the bringing forward 

 of a sutficient number of new and inter- 

 esting objects to give novelty and plea- 

 sure to the recurring displays. Great 

 fairs are, moreover, always instructive. 

 They not only offer favorable opportuni- 

 ties for observing and comparing many 

 articles with which people desire to sup- 

 ply themselves, but, by bringing togeth- 

 er the best products of useful and artis- 

 tic workmanship, they familiarize the 

 public with the highest standards of 

 excellence, and become the centers of 

 impulse, and incite to still further im- 

 provement. International exhibitions 

 have undoubtedly had great effect in 

 stimulating whole communities to apply 

 greater intelligence to the processes of 

 the arts and to attain a higher perfec- 

 tion in industrial products ; and this 

 wholesome education has been also pro- 

 moted, though in a lesser degree, by the 

 large local exhibitions. 



Among the fairs annually held, those 

 of the American Institute have long 

 had a leading place. The position of 

 the Institute, at the chief distributing 

 point of the country and the center of 

 population, has doubtless contributed 

 largely to give its fairs such a charac- 

 ter; but the judicious conduct of the 

 concerns of the society and the discre- 

 tion with which awards have in the 

 main been bestowed have been no less 

 important factors. The American In- 

 stitute, was the pioneer in the work to 

 which it is devoted the promotion and 



