THE PEOGEESS OF SCIENCE. 



!95 



possible; the fourth period has prob- 

 ably introduced a new era in geology, 

 of which the geophysical laboratory at 

 Washington is a sign. It was be- 

 cause van't Hoff is a great exponent 

 both of organic chemistry and of phys- 

 ical chemistry that he was the first 

 man to be awarded the Xobel prize in 

 chemistry. A man who commands the 

 whole field of chemistry and who is 

 deemed able to fill the chair of physics 

 at the University of Berlin as successor 

 to Kundt is a man who is well worthy 

 of the exceptional honor paid by the 

 Prussian Academy of Sciences to van't 

 HcfT. 



THE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH 

 ANNIVERSARY OF COLUMBIA 



UNIVERSITY. 

 Columbia University, which re- 

 ceived its charter as King's College in 

 1754:, appears to be the sixth in age of 

 American Colleges, having been pre- 

 ceded by Harvard (1636), William and 

 Mary (1692), Yale (1701), Pennsyl- 

 vania (1740) and Princeton (1746). 

 Our universities are young in compari- 

 son with European institutions, whose 

 obscure beginnings go far back into the 

 medieval period; but it may be called 

 to mind that the University of Berlin 

 was founded in 1S09 and the University 

 of London in 1836. Our colleges were, 

 indeed, established early in the history 

 of the settlements, New York having 

 been a trading village of less than 

 15,000 inhabitants when 'a public lot- 

 tery was authorized to raise money for 

 the advancement of learning and 

 towards the founding of a college.' The 

 first president, Samuel Johnson, in the 

 announcement issued in 1754, offered an 

 ambitious if somewhat vague program 

 of studies. He proposed " to instruct 

 and perfect the Youth in the Learned 

 Languages, and in the Arts of reason- 

 ing exactly, of writing correctly, and 

 speaking eloquently; and in the Arts 

 of numbering and measuring ; of Sur- 

 veying and Navigation, of Geography 

 and History; of Husbandry, Commerce 

 and Government, and in the Knowledge 

 of all Nature in the Heavens above us, 



and in the Air, Water and Earth 

 around us, and the various kinds of 

 Meteors, Stones, Mines and Minerals, 

 Plants and Animals, and of every 

 Thing useful for the Comfort, the Con- 

 venience and Elegance of Life, in the 

 chief Manufactures relating to any of 

 these Things." Dr. Johnson being the 

 entire faculty until his son was added, 

 it may be assumed that the actual 

 course was limited to ' the learned lan- 

 guages ' and elementary mathematics. 

 The first professorship, however, was 

 in mathematics and natural philos- 

 ophy, established in 1757, when Dr. 

 Johnson, in accordance with the orig- 

 inal agreement, ' retired to some place 

 of safety out of town when the small- 

 pox prevailed.' 



Columbia was a comparatively small 

 institution until about I860, but it 

 has taken a leading part in the de- 

 velopment of scientific education. A 

 medical school was established in 1767, 

 two years after the first American 

 school had been founded in Philadel- 

 phia. In 1S64 was established the 

 School of Mines, the first institution 

 of the kind in the country. In the 

 small faculty of the college have been 

 a considerable number of prominent 

 scientific men, including Bard, Hosack, 

 Mitchill, Adrian, Torrey, Newberry, 

 Egleston and Rood. Barnard, presi- 

 dent from 1864 to 1889, was a scientific 

 man of eminence, who had broad ideas 

 on education. After President Low's 

 inauguration in 1890, a notable de- 

 velopment followed, not least evident in 

 the enlargement of the scientific depart- 

 ments, and this development continues 

 under the administration of President 

 Butler. Columbia now stands in the 

 small group of the leading universities 

 of the world, both in number of stu- 

 dents and in contributions to the ad- 

 vancement of knowledge. It has 

 earned the right to celebrate with 

 satisfaction its one hundred and fiftieth 

 anniversary. 



The exercises were scarcely so elab- 

 orate as the Princeton sesquicentenial 

 and the Yale bi-centenial. A large re- 

 ception to the alumni was given by the 



