348 



NA TURE 



{August 8, 1889 



of the community of the district in which it is placed, 

 for deepening, purifying, and strengthening all good in- 

 fluences on the men, and the alliance of the men with 

 the institutions. Institutions remain, but the men pass 

 away — 



" The individual withers, and the world is more and more." 



According to the thirteenth Annual Report of the Uni- 

 versity (September 1887 to September 1888), it appears 

 that the academic staff included 57 Professors, Associate 

 Professors, and Lecturers. There were 420 students ; 

 199 were residents of Maryland, 196 came from other 

 States of the Union, and 25 from foreign countries ; 231 

 had already graduated, 127 had matriculated for the de- 

 gree of B.A., and 62 were admitted as special students 

 to pursue courses of study for which they seemed fitted, 

 without reference to graduation. The University does 

 not provide lodging or board. 



There are seven distinct and parallel courses of College 

 instruction adapted for matriculation, and the various 

 elective groups for the degree examinations in the Uni- 

 versity. The subjects of the Professors and Lecturers 

 last session were : history, political economy, mathema- 

 tics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, mineralogy, geology, 

 biology, psychology, pedagogics, pathology, Greek, Latin, 

 Sanskrit, Indo-European philology, Shemitic languages, 

 Romance languages, Teutonic languages, Anglo-Saxon, 

 and English. The large and well-appointed physical, 

 chemical, and biological laboratories of the University 

 have already been detailed in Nature (vol. xxxiii. p. 237). 



Two degrees only are granted — the Bachelor of Arts 

 and the Doctor of Philosophy ; and since degrees were 

 first conferred in 1878, 177 have attained the Bacca- 

 laureate degree, and 131 have been advanced to the 

 degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 



There are twenty Fellowships of $500 each. The 

 examination for these is, in a certain sense, competitive, 

 but not with uniform tests, nor by formal questions 

 submitted to the candidates. The applicants' pre- 

 vious record, and the Professors' record, is taken into 

 consideration. 



"Those who are appointed are expected to proceed to 

 the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The appointments 

 are not made as rewards for good work already done, but 

 as aids and incentives to good work in the future ; in 

 other words, the Fellowships are not so much honour 

 and prizes bestowed for past achievements, as helps to 

 further progress and stepping-stones to honourable in- 

 tellectual careers. They are not offered to those who 

 are definitely looking forward to the practice of any one 

 of the three learned professions (though such persons are 

 not formally excluded from the competition), but are 

 bestowed almost exclusively on young men desirous of 

 becoming teachers of science or literature, or proposing 

 to devote their lives to special branches of learning which 

 lie outside of the ordinary studies of the lawyer, the 

 physician, or the minister. Appointments are rarely, if 

 ever, made of graduates of more than five years' 

 standing." 



There are also twenty graduate scholarships of ^200 

 each for those who have taken the baccalaureate degree. 

 There are also thirty-eight ordinary and honorary Hopkins 

 Scholarships (8250 annually and free tuition) for promis- 

 ing young men. 



Courses of public lectures, designed primarily for the 

 members of the University, and supplementary to the 

 regular class-room work, are given each session. The 

 admission of the public is by ticket, to be previously 

 obtained free. The courses for 1887-88 included: ten 

 lectures on some of the problems of great cities ; six 

 lectures on the local study of natural history ; nine lectures 

 on the history of the science of electricity and magnetism ; 

 eleven lectures on the causes which led to the French 



Revolution ; four lectures on Greek lyric poetry ; eight 

 lectures on the topography of Athens. 



The University Library consists of 35,000 volumes. 

 And it is lately reported that the valuable scientific col- 

 lection of the Maryland Academy of Sciences has been 

 presented to the University. 



But the great point of this institution is its efforts in the 

 direction of the endowment of scientific research. Prof. 

 Newcomb, one of the Professors of the University, said 

 in 1876 of America what is very true of Great Britain : 

 " We are deficient in the number of men actively devoted 

 to scientific research of the higher types ; in public recog- 

 nition of the labours of those who are so engaged ; in the 

 machinery for making the public acquainted with their 

 labours and their wants ; and in the preliminary means 

 for publishing their researches." The Johns Hopkins 

 University has encouraged scientific research, and the 

 publication of its results, to a large extent ; not only 

 by training young men in the methods of exact science, 

 and fitting them for the scientific service of the Govern- 

 ment, for scientific and technical laboratories, and for the 

 teaching profession, but also by the publication of journals 

 and monographs detailing the results of scientific study. 

 The trustees, determining to encourage the heads of de- 

 partments and other qualified scholars to contribute each 

 in his own way to the advancement of the science which 

 he professed, started five periodicals, conducted by Pro- 

 fessors and graduates, and aided by the University chest, 

 namely : The Atnerican Journal of Matlif.matics, 10 vols., \ 

 edited by Prof. Newcomb ; The American Chemical 

 Journal^ 10 vols., edited by Prof. Remsen ; The American < 

 J ournal of Philoloo^y^ 9 vols., edited by Prof. Gildersleeve ; 

 Studies from the Biological Laboratory, 4 vols., edited by 

 Prof. Martin and Dr. Brooks ; and the Johns Hopkins 

 University Studies in Historical and Political Science, 

 edited by Prof. H. B. Adams, the seventh series of which 

 is in progress. All of these publications are considered 

 on both sides of the Atlantic to be of the greatest value. 

 The American Journal of Psychology, Modern Language 

 Notes, and Cotitributions to the Study of Archceology, are 

 also edited by members of the academic staff, and there 

 are University Societies on all these subjects. 



The University also publishes University Circulars 

 monthly, containing scientific notes in biology, chemistry, 

 history, political science, mathematics, physics, philology, 

 philosophy, logic, &c., besides the usual Annual Reports 

 and special publications, such as the " Reports of the 

 Chesapeake ZoDlogical Laboratory." This is a laboratory 

 of about fifty individuals at ten stations, and the results 

 of their work at the sea-shore, in the study of natural 

 laws in their simplest manifestations, from 1879 to 1886 

 include ninety-nine titles. 



Dr. Gilman, the President of the University, reported 

 at the tenth anniversary that 176 former students were 

 known to be engaged in the work of teaching, mostly in 

 colleges ; and that among the former pupils are eighty 

 physicians, thirty-eight ministers, and thirty-four lawyers. 

 There were no exact statistics of those engaged in scientific 

 pursuits. 



Such are the beginnings of the Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity. Those engaged in the work of higher education in 

 this country will appreciate fully the fortunate circumstances 

 in the inception of the institution : a benefaction of 

 ^700,000 for endowment ; carefully selected trustees, to 

 whose wisdom, moderation, and far-sightedness much is 

 due ; a wisely organized constitution ; able Professors 

 and teachers, gauged by the standard of work done and 

 success achieved ; and foundations to assist all these 

 contributed by a critical and discerning public. The 

 institution started full of promise, and it is redeeming its 

 promise with a rapidity unparalleled in the history of 

 academic institutions. 



J. Taylor Kay. 



