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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 358. 



pronounced antagonism toward smoking, drink- 

 ing and dancing. His unfailing and uncompro- 

 mising defence of the doctrine of evolution in 

 season and out of season further brought him 

 into sharp antagonism with the strong church- 

 going element of the State. 



Nor did the new members of the faculty whom 

 the president brought to the university serve to 

 strengthen his position, partly because the local 

 animosity against the president was turned into 

 suspicious reserve toward these who were sup- 

 posed to be his friends, and partly because there 

 was probably not a single one among them who 

 did not disapprove of the president's policy in 

 one or another essential point. It must be 

 noted that the president did his utmost to secure 

 the most able and well-trained young men that 

 the salaries offered could procure ; but the policy 

 of the university was not in the least affected 

 thereby, because President Raymond continued 

 to settle all questions himself, and the new 

 professors as well as the old were distributed 

 among the various committees so as to insure 

 a majority in favor of the president's views. 



No fair-minded person can doubt that Presi- 

 dent Raymond worked as only a man in his best 

 years can work for the advancement of the 

 university. To be sure considerable energy and 

 some money were wasted on untimely features, 

 such as the premedical course, the domestic 

 science, the department of pharmacy, the work 

 for Ph.D., and the correspondence courses. 

 But after all this has been admitted there can 

 be no doubt that the standard of scholarship 

 was raised through Dr. Raymond's efforts far 

 above what it had ever been before in West 

 Virginia. 



The most striking illustration of this general 

 advancement is perhaps to be found in the 

 equipment and management of the university 

 library at the beginning and at the end of Mr. 

 Raymond's administration. Before his arrival 

 the books were all inside an iron railing, and 

 in charge of a lady who did not pretend to know 

 anything about the classification of books. Her 

 chief function was to see that the books did not 

 disappear. The place was open less than six 

 hours a day, and during those hours the space 

 outside the iron railing is said to have been the 

 noisiest and most disorderly place on the 



campus. This fall a thoroughly modern library 

 building is being finished, and, what is more 

 to the point, the library has been as pleasant, 

 orderly, and well arranged as any one could 

 wish during at least the last two years, that 

 is, ever since the present librarian was able 

 to bring order out of the previous chaos. The 

 library is now open from 8 a. m. to 10 p. m., 

 every week-day, and from 4 to 6 p. m. on 

 Sundays and holidays. The amount of money 

 which was spent for current literature and 

 books under President Raymond's regime was 

 also about all that could reasonably have been 

 asked for, and this money w^as largely 

 spent under the direction of the young in- 

 structors whom he had brought there, because 

 there seemed to be very little demand for more 

 literature from the older professors. Several 

 departments of the university are now fairly well 

 equipped with standard and recent literature. 



Another striking illustration of how Mr. Ray- 

 mond endeavored to raise the standard of the 

 work done in the university is found in the 

 changes which he introduced in the scientific 

 departments. At the beginning of his adminis- 

 tration botany, zoology, physiology, anatomy, 

 and materia medica were taught by one man 

 (an M.D.). During the last two years anatomy 

 was not taught, and the other four subjects were 

 represented by two Ph.D.'s and one M.D. 

 Another Ph.D. was appointed assistant profes- 

 sor in chemistry. The department of physics 

 was not changed, but it was well known that 

 this was due only to the fact that the president 

 could not change everything at once. 



The climax came in the spring of 1900 when 

 the president asked the board of regents for the 

 resignation of five of the old professors, and in 

 addition formally expressed his disapproval of 

 two others as well as of the director of the ex- 

 periment station. This step, bold and ill-advised 

 as it seemed, was partly a measure of self-pro- 

 tection, for some of the men whose resignations 

 were demanded were then openly doing every- 

 thing in their power to bring about the down- 

 fall of Mr. Raymond. The board of regents 

 did not grant the president's request, because 

 four of the nine members composing the board 

 were at this time opposed to the president, and 

 further, because to grant such a request then 



