December 15, 1905.1 



SCIENCE. 



'81 



culture is the principal occupation of the 

 people, have remarkably homogeneous bod- 

 ies of students, the fathers of the students 

 being for the most part independent farm- 

 ers, mechanics, and professional people who 

 themselves live in the country, and are in 

 moderate circumstances. This agreeable 

 homogeneity tends, of course, to diminish, 

 if strong differences of condition are de- 

 veloped among the population on the nat- 

 ural water-shed of the institution, or if the 

 college site, once thoroughly rural, becomes 

 citified through the advent of successful 

 manufactures or of active trade. 



There are certain more subtle differences 

 between the American colleges, which it is 

 easy to feel but hard to describe. Some of 

 them have a characteristic tone, or common 

 sentiment, towards some particular re- 

 ligious organization or institution, as for 

 instance, towards the Protestant Episcopal, 

 or the Congregational, or the Presbyterian, 

 or the Methodist church; in some there is 

 such an amount of agreement among teach- 

 ers, graduates and students on some polit- 

 ical dogma, like protection, for example, 

 or bimetallism, or state rights, as to make 

 rejection of that dogma a real difiiculty for 

 any discordant individual. Some exhibit 

 a predominant interest in the applications 

 of science ; others maintain a strong in- 

 terest in literature and history — an interest 

 manifested in a striking degree by former 

 generations of teachers and students at the 

 same place, and also by eminent graduates. 

 Others continue to exhibit an affectionate 

 respect for some ethical or religious move- 

 ment of former times. There is no doubt 

 that the institutions of the north, the south, 

 the east and the west respectively have 

 somewhat dift'erent effects on the manners 

 and bearing of their students, just as these 

 students show slight common differences of 

 voice and speech. These local differences 

 are tolerably persistent; although there are 

 now many American colleges to which stu- 



dents come from all parts of the country, 

 bringing with them their own local man- 

 ners, voices and pronunciations. In spite 

 of these recognizable differences, it is to be 

 observed that the American speech from 

 Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific, presents no such 

 strong local variations as little England 

 presents, or as distinguish the north Ger- 

 man from the south German. 



There seems to be a considerable differ- 

 ence among the American colleges and uni- 

 versities in regard to charging a tuition fee ; 

 but this difference is really not so great or 

 so important as it seems. To be sure, some 

 of the state universities charge no tuitiooi 

 fee, w^hile most of the endowed institutions 

 charge a tuition fee varying from $50 to 

 $200 a year; but it is to be observed, on 

 the one hand, that many of the endowed 

 institutions remit tuition fees with liber- 

 ality, or possess numerous scholarship 

 funds, the income of most of which is suffi- 

 cient to meet the tuition fee and leave a 

 balance applicable to board or lodging, and, 

 on the other, that the state institutions have 

 established the custom of charging various 

 fees for entrance, incidentals, graduation 

 and laboratory courses. Some of the state 

 universities make a distinction between the 

 college and the school of agriculture and 

 mechanics arts, on the one hand, and the 

 law school and medical school on the other, 

 charging no tuition fee in the first group, 

 but an ample tuition fee in the second. In 

 the state institutions fees for some of the 

 objects just mentioned are invariably col- 

 lected; and the older the institution the 

 larger these fees are apt to be. Thus, in 

 the University of Michigan the matricula- 

 tion fee is $10 for a citizen of Michigan and 

 $25 for a person who comes from any other 

 state or country; the fee for incidental ex- 

 penses in the department of literature, sci- 

 ence and the arts is $30 for Michigan stu- 

 dents and $40 for all others; and in the 



