November 17, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



611 



work on March 2, 1868, with fewer than 

 one hundred students, its growth for the 

 first twenty years was very slow, as the 

 state at first declined to give very largely 

 in addition to the federal grant. Indeed, 

 it seemed inclined for a time to limit the 

 institution strictly to the work of a college 

 for agriculture and mechanic arts, in the 

 narrowest sense, as was indicated by the 

 name first selected for it, namely, 'Illinois 

 Industrial University,' and by the refusal 

 of the legislature to do more than apply in 

 good faith the proceeds of the federal 

 grant to its support. 



But about the year 1887 a new spirit 

 became manifest. The Hatch Act, fur- 

 nishing additional funds for the support 

 of scientific work in the domain of agricul- 

 ture, seems to have been potent in stimu- 

 lating this new attitude. As a result of 

 the activity of the alumni and of other 

 friends of higher education in the state, 

 the legislature was prevailed upon to 

 change the name to the 'University of 

 Illinois. ' 



What is in a name? Sometimes much, 

 and so it was here. Giving this name — 

 the University of Illinois — to the institu- 

 tion, if not at that time an indication 

 of a conscious change of purpose on the 

 part of the people of this state, powerfully 

 helped, at any rate, in working out this 

 change of purpose and bringing it to the 

 public consciousness. 



It did not, of course, immediately pro- 

 duce large results, and even so late as 1890 

 the faculty of the school numbered only 

 thirty-five, and the student body, four hun- 

 dred and eighteen. Since that time, partly 

 as a result of the impetus given by the 

 second Morrill Act of 1890; partly as a 

 result of the changed attitude on the part 

 of the state toward the institution, evi- 

 denced, even though unconsciously, in this 

 change of name; still more, perhaps, as a 



result of that marvelous increase of pop- 

 ular interest in higher education manifested 

 throughout the country in the last fifteen 

 years ; the legislature of Illinois has become 

 more and more liberal in its appropriations, 

 enabling the institution to approximate 

 with an ever-increasing rapidity toward the 

 ideal expressed in its name, 'The Univer- 

 sity of the State of Illinois.' 



The increase in the attendance and in 

 the instructing body has been remarkable. 

 The faculty has grown to number nearly 

 four hundred and the total number of 

 matriculants in all departments for the 

 present year will probably reach four 

 thousand. 



This rapid increase has been partly the 

 result of adding ,new colleges — in some 

 cases existing colleges with an honorable 

 history and a considerable attendance, as 

 in the case of the colleges of medicine and 

 dentistry— and partly the result of in- 

 creased attendance in the older depart- 

 ments. 



To the original colleges of agriculture 

 and mechanic arts, contemplated in the 

 first act (including engineering and archi- 

 tecture), have been added the colleges of 

 liberal arts, of science, of law, of medicine 

 and dentistry, and the schools of music, 

 of library science, of pharmacy and of 

 education. 



In the college of liberal arts and the 

 graduate school connected with it, are in- 

 cluded the ordinary subjects of instruction 

 embraced in the modem university so far 

 as they are not included in the other schools 

 and colleges mentioned, except those be- 

 longing to a theological school. 



Associated with the university are, be- 

 sides the agricultural experiment station 

 already mentioned, the engineering experi- 

 ment station (the first of the kind in the 

 country) ; the state geological survey; the 

 state laboratory of natural history ; the 



