IX ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 243 



university; whether a curriculum shall be pre- 

 scribed; or whether the student shall be allowed 

 to range at will among the subjects which are 

 open to him. And this question is inseparably 

 connected with another, namely, the conferring of 

 degrees. It is obviously impossible that any 

 student should pass through the whole of the 

 series of courses of instruction offered by a uni- 

 versity. If a degree is to be conferred as a mark 

 of proficiency in knowledge, it must be given on 

 the ground that the candidate is proficient in a 

 certain fraction of those studies; and then will 

 arise the necessity of insuring an equivalency of^ 

 degrees, so that the course by which a degree 

 is obtained shall mark approximately an equal 

 amount of labour and of acquirements, in all 

 cases. But this equivalency can hardly be secured 

 in any other way than by prescribing a series 

 of definite lines of study. This is a matter 

 which will require grave consideration. The im- 

 portant points to bear in mind, I think, are that 

 there should not be too many subjects in the 

 curriculum, and that the aim should be the 

 attainment of thorough and sound knowledge of 

 each. 



One half of the Johns Hopkins bequest is 

 devoted to the establishment of a hospital, and 

 it was the desire of the testator tliat the uni- 

 versity and the hospital should co-operate in the 

 promotion of medical education. Tlie trustees 



