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 

 university. 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 pro- 

 ficient in a certain fraction of those studies ; and 

 then will arise the necessity of insuring an equiva- 

 lency 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 that the univer- 

 sity and the hospital should co-operate in the 

 promotion of medical education. The trustees 



