58 



NATURE 



[September 20, 1917 



T" 



rather extensive areas, the one on Mt. Waialeale cover- 

 ing several square miles. 



Three species of tree ferns are found on the islands, 

 and in some places form extensive forests. These 

 plants produce at the base of the stipe a great ball of 

 brownish-yellow wool called pulu by the natives, and 

 used by them for stuffing pillows and mattresses. 



HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED 

 STATES. 

 'HE report of the U.S. Commissioner of Education 

 for the year ended June 30, 1916, has been re- 

 ceived from Washington. It consists of two bulky 

 volumes, one running to 692 pages and the other to 

 663 pages. The first part contains a comprehensive 

 survey of the progress of education in the United 

 States for the school year 1915-16, and also a similar 

 account of educational progress in all those foreign 

 countries from which the U.S. Bureau of Education 

 could obtain sufficient information. The second 

 volume .is given up to educational statistics, but owing 

 to the difficulty of compiling such a mass of data and 

 the time absorbed in the task, the numbers provided 

 deal only with the year 1914-15. 



The Cost of American Education. 



The estimated cost of education in the United States 

 in 1914 was very nearly i6o,ooo,oooi. An estimate, 

 making due allowances for the time which has elapsed 

 since the date given, would easily bring the current 

 educational expenditure in the States to 200,000,000!. 

 Public elementary schools cost approximately 

 ioo,ooo,oooZ. ; public high schools, 14,000,000!.; private- 

 elementary schools, 10,400,000/. ; private secondary 

 schools, 3,ooo.oooL ; universities, colleges, and profes- 

 sional schools, 20,000,000!. ; and normal schools, 

 3,000, oooZ. 



Gifts and Bequests. 



The Bureau of Education periodically publishes tabu- 

 lar statements showing the amounts of gifts and be- 

 quests to education. The total for 19 14 reached 

 6,271,490!., the greatest ever recorded for a single year. 

 For the academic year 1914-15 the total 'amount re- 

 ceived in this way was 4,062,050!. ; and of this 

 about 1,997,000!. was for increase of plant, 711,300!. 

 for current expenses, and 2,153,800!. for endowment. 

 Thirty-five universities, colleges, and technological 

 schools reported gifts of more than 20,000!., the total 

 amount received by these institutions reaching 

 2,987,160!. The following institutions each received 

 more than 100,000!. : — Johns Hopkins University, 

 271,820!. ; Wellesley College, 255,585!. ; Harvard Uni- 

 versity, 244,000!. ; University of Pennsylvania, 234,700!. ; 

 University of Chicago, 228,876!. ; Yale University, 

 193,160!.; Princeton University, 157,909!.; and Massa- 

 chusetts Institute of Technology, 155,453!. 



The generous benefactions received for education in 

 the States during 19 14 were distributed among the 

 various classes of educational institutions as follows : — 



;^6,27i,490 



For the forty-four years from 1871 to 1914 inclusive 

 the grand total of gifts and bequest? to American 

 education reaches 116,883,616!. 



NO. 2499, VOL. 100] 



Numher of Students. 



For the year ending June, 1915, the U.S. Bureau of 

 Education received reports from 563 universities, col- 

 leges, and technological schools in the different States. 

 States and municipalities control ninety-five of these 

 institutions, and private corporations control 468. There 

 were 237,168 students in the collegiate and resident 

 graduate departments of these institutions, and of this 

 total 84,861 were women. 



In the year 1915, 29,608 baccalaureate, 4140 graduate, 

 and 883 honorary degrees were conferred. The degree 

 of doctor of philosophy was conferred on examination 

 by forty-three institutions on 486 men and 60 women. 



Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges. 



The institutions commonly known as "agricultural 

 and mechanical colleges," or "land-grant colleges," arc 

 dealt with in a separate chapter of the leport. In 

 some States, it should be remembered, the agricultural 

 and mechanical colleges form parts of the State univer- 

 sities, and in such cases the statistics respecting such 

 universities concern themselves also with the activities 

 of these departments 



During 19 14-15 particulars respecting sixty-nine agri- 

 cultural and mechanical colleges were collected by the 

 bureau. In the fifty-two institutions for white students 

 there were 9742 instructors of various grades, and in 

 the seventeen institutions exclusively for coloured 

 students there were 529 instructors. The total number 

 of students in these institutions was 125,075. 



The total income of these colleges for 19 15 was 

 61392,353!., of which 3,601,221!. was State and the re- 

 mainder Federal aid. In addition, the colleges received 

 the following grants for the year : — U.S. grant for 

 experiment stations, 273,858!. ; State grants for experi- 

 ment stations, 225,942!.; State grants for extension 

 work and farmers' institutes, 215,001!. ; and U.S. grant 

 for extension work, 98,248!. The distribution, accord- 

 ing to source, excluding the experiment station funds 

 and the extension and farmers' institute funds, was 

 Federal government 11 per cent.. State 56 per cent., 

 and private funds 33 per cent. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



The inaugural address for the session 1917-18 of 

 the London (Royal Free Hospital) School of Medicine 

 for Women will be delivered by Dr. L. Garrett Ander- 

 son, C.B.E., on Monday, October i, at 3.30 p.m. The 

 subject will be "Ambition." 



Mention was made in Nature of May 17 (p. 238) 

 of a bequest by the late Mrs. E. D. Denning, of South 

 Norwood, of property for the application of modern 

 scientific knowledge to educational needs. It is now 

 announced in the Times (September 18) that Mrs. 

 Denning left estate of the gross value of 169,719!., the 

 net personalty being 78,581!. By her will she be- 

 queathed " to the Public Trustee all her freehold 

 property in trust for a ' Frank Denning Memorial * for 

 the advancement and propagation of education in 

 mechanical science in any part of the United Kingdom, 

 with preference to those persons who reside in the 

 Borough of Croydon." 



A Secondary-School Examinations Council has been 

 constituted by the President of the Board of Education 

 to assist the Board in the co-ordination of the examina- 

 tions to which secondary schools now submit their 

 pupils. The council is to consist in the first instance of 

 the following representative members, with the Rev. 

 William Temple, formerly headmaster of Repton 

 School, as chairman :■ — Oxford and Cambridge Schools 

 Examination Board, Mr. P. E. Matheson ; Oxford 

 Delegacy for Local Examinations, Mr. H. T. Gerrans ; 



