772 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 572. 



institution. Thus, ten of the trustees of 

 Cornell University are elected by the 

 alumni, and six of • the members of the 

 Yale corporation have been so elected since 

 1872, these six being graduates of the uni- 

 versity. The tendency to exclude political 

 considerations and influences from the gov- 

 ernment of all colleges and universities is 

 strong, and will undoubtedly become effec- 

 tual within a moderate number of years, 

 with rare and temporary exceptions. The 

 new Carnegie foundation, which provides 

 pensions for teachers, except in institutions 

 under denominational control, will help to 

 induce institutions of learning to rid them- 

 selves completely of that control. It is so 

 natural and proper to give some influence 

 over the fortunes of a college or university 

 to the body of its graduates, so soon as that 

 body becomes large and strong, that the 

 third tendency above mentioned is sure to 

 be more and more exhibited. It can hardly 

 come into full play, however, until the in- 

 stitution has been graduating young men 

 for at least forty years. 



II. 



Another respect in which the American 

 institutions of learning resemble each other 

 is in the constitution and functions of the 

 body of teachers called the faculty, and in 

 the relations of that body to the governing 

 board and to the students. In almost all 

 eases the faculty has no legal powers, these 

 powers residing in the governing board or 

 boards, but is nevertheless entrusted with 

 very important duties. It ordinarily has 

 the control of terms of admission, of studies, 

 of terms of graduation, and of rules of con- 

 duct. The teachers composing this body 

 are paid salaries, which constitute their en- 

 tire compensation, they deriving no income 

 directly from the students. All American 

 institutions are alike in this respect, and 

 therein they all differ from most European 

 institutions. At Oxford and Cambridge 



the tutor receives a fee for each student to 

 whom he gives direct personal instruction, 

 and the annual sum total of these fees may 

 be larger than the highest salary of an 

 American professor. At most continental 

 universities a portion of the professor's in- 

 come comes from the fees paid by the stu- 

 dents who take his courses, and this por- 

 tion of his income may be many fold larger 

 than his fixed salary. There is no corre- 

 sponding practise in the American institu- 

 tions. The recent introduction of precep- 

 tors at Princeton University, inaccurately 

 described in the newspapers as a copying of 

 the English method, preserves the Amer- 

 ican custom that the college pays for all 

 the instruction which the student receives 

 — that is, the preceptors are to be paid 

 fixed salaries, and are not to receive fees 

 proportionate to the number of young men 

 who take advantage of their instruction. 

 This is a striking uniformity of practise in 

 American institutions, which has grown up 

 in a perfectly natural way through imita- 

 tion of the earliest institutions, and because 

 of the conformity of the practise to Amer- 

 ican needs and preferences. 



The subjects of instruction which an 

 American faculty will ordinarily deal with, 

 unless the institution has very scanty 

 means, are singularly uniform. Even a 

 small and poor college will undertake to 

 provide instruction in the classics and at 

 least five modern languages, in mathe- 

 matics, physics, chemistry, biology and 

 geology, with some of their applications, 

 and in history, political science, economics, 

 sociology and philosophy. This list is 

 much like the list of subjects that were to 

 be taught in the University of Virginia, as 

 declared in the act of the general assembly 

 on January 25, 1819, except that Jeffer- 

 son's list included the principles of agricul- 

 ture, anatomy, medicine, the law of nature 

 and nations, and municipal law, and was 

 therefore much in advance of its time. It 



