February 10, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



209 



1898. The experiment, in so definite and 

 conclusive a form, is so unexampled and 

 the results so exceedingly instructive and 

 suggestive to faculties, or others proposing 

 to deal in a radical manner with so delicate 

 a subject, that it has been thought that a 

 wide circulation of these facts would prove 

 acceptable and useful in many ways. 



In illustration of the sensitiveness of the 

 average technical college to changes in 

 entrance requirements and consequent 

 changes in its relations to the preparatory 

 schools as now customarily conducted, 

 ignoring demands of any other than aca- 



entrance and of the course itself, meantime. 

 Referring to the diagram : Following the 

 upper line, A, we observe that the total 

 registration began rising instantly upon the 

 establishment of an engineering course, 

 from about 100, in 18S6, to 200, nearly, in 

 1887, 300 in '89, 400 in '90, 500 in '92, and 

 to GoS in the year terminating June, 1894. 

 At this point the non-professional entrance 

 requirements were raised bj^ demanding an 

 additional year of higher mathematics, 

 thus permitting the freshmen to take up 

 analytical geometry and the calculus, and 

 the sophomore class to study and complete 



b 



18S5 86 87 & 89 1890 91 " 92 93 91 95 9S 97 98 99 1900 

 STATISTICS OF SIBLEY COLLEGE, 1885-1900. 



demic colleges and universities, it will be 

 instructive to study the accompanying dia- 

 grammatic representation of the woi'king 

 of such a change compelled by the increase 

 in numbers of students beyond what was at 

 the time thought a limit for good work and 

 of suitable equipment and accommodations. 

 The accompanying diagram presents 

 the statistics of growth of Sibley College 

 from 1885, the date of its organization upon 

 its present basis, to 1897-8, and the pre- 

 sumptive changes to A. D. 1900, assuming 

 no further modification of the conditions of 



applied mechanics — a change which proved 

 of enormous advantage in improvement of 

 the course of studj'. But the registration 

 necessarilj' at once dropped oif to lower fig- 

 ui-es, until, in the year 1896-7, the registra- 

 tion of undergraduates was less than 500. 

 On the other hand, the numbers of the 

 graduating classes continued to rise until 

 this change had its full effect, and num- 

 bered 125 in June, '97, but will not exceed, 

 probably, 95 in '99 ; after which date it may 

 be expected to again resume its upward 

 march. Curves B and C show the nuni- 



