THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



91 



THE PKOGEESS OF SCIENCE. 



THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF 

 NEW YORK. 



Since 1848 the College of tlie City 

 of New York and its predecessor, the 

 Free Academy, have carried forward an 

 educational work the importance of 

 which is scarcely appreciated. Yale 

 and Princeton are household words, 

 where the existence of the City College 

 is unknown. Yet the college has 

 rivaled the more prominent institutions 

 both in numbers of students and in 

 the efficiency of the courses of instruc- 

 tion. From the point of view of this 

 journal, it is sufficient to note that 

 at least two members of the National 

 Academy of Sciences are graduates of 

 the college, and that the only living ex- 

 president of the academy was formerly 

 one of its professors. There is rea- 

 son to believe that September 29, wlen 

 a new president was installed and the 

 corner-stone of the new buildings was 

 laid, will mark an epoch in the history 

 of the institution, and that it will be- 

 come one of the chief centers for the 

 educational progress of the future. 



The ceremonies of installation and 

 dedication were themselves imposing. 

 Those who hold that academic proces- 

 sions, gowns and the like are some- 

 what out of place in a modern demo- 

 cratic community were at least given 

 the pleasure of seeing gowns handed 

 out with an even hand to all, whether 

 or not they possessed academic degrees. 

 The fact of special interest was the 

 representation on the program of re- 

 publicans and democrats, of protes- 

 tants, catholics and iews, all unTtinof 

 in the service of the college without 

 regard to political or denominational 

 differences. Mayor Low spoke im- 

 mediately after Mr. Shepard, his 

 rival in the contest for the mayorality 



two years ago, and Ex-President Cleve- 

 land followed Senator Depew. Other 

 speeches were made by Governor Odell, 

 the presidents of Columbia, Cornell, 

 Yale and the Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sities, and by representatives of the 

 trustees, faculty, alumni and students 

 of the college. The new president of 

 the college made an admirable in- 

 augural address, showing full appre- 

 ciation of the problems before the col- 

 lege and the city. 



Dr. John Huston Finley was ofi'ered 

 the presidency of the college after a 

 careful search had been made throu2-h 

 the whole country for the best attain- 

 able man. That one born in Illinois, 

 at the time professor in a university in 

 another state, regarding whose political 

 or religious affiliations no questions 

 were asked, was chosen, shows that mu- 

 nicipal institutions can be conducted 

 without local or partisan prejudice. 

 General Webb, who retires from the 

 presidency at the age of sixty-seven 

 years, held the office for twenty-three 

 years. A graduate of West Point and 

 a general in the regular army, he pos- 

 sessed valuable qualifications for the 

 office, but he was not an educational 

 leader. The students were well trained 

 and well drilled, but instructors were 

 assigned to teach subjects with which 

 they were not familiar and investiga- 

 tion was not sufficiently encouraged. 

 The college did not take an important 

 place in the educational and scientific 

 progress of the country. Dr. Finley 

 has the vigorous personality and has 

 had the training and experience fitting 

 liim for a college presidency — one of 

 the most responsible and influential, 

 and at the same time one of the most 

 complicated and difficult of positions. 

 As a boy he worked on a farm and in a 



