Theological seminaries providing certain reciprocal educational privileges and giving these institutions a qualified representation in the university council. In 1892 a school of pure science was established, the object of which was "to increase the opportunities for advanced work in mathematics and natural science on the part of the students who do not care to take any of the technical courses in the School of Mines." The faculty of this school also secured equal representation in the university council.

EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION.

The educational organization then consists of a college in the usual American meaning of the term, in which a four years' course of study leads to the degree of B. A., the last year of which, however, can be spent in work under university faculties; three professional schools, Law, Medicine, and Mines (the latter a technological school), and three schools in which scientific research is the chief aim-School of Political Science, School of Philosophy, and School of Pure Science. The statute regulating the conferring of degrees is as follows:

The president shall have power, when the requirements of the statutes shall have been satisfactorily fulfilled, to confer degrees as follows:

a. The degree of Bachelor of Arts, upon the recommendation of the faculty of arts;

b. The professional and technical degrees of Bachelor of Laws, upon the recommendation of the faculty of law: Doctor of Medicine, upon the recommendation of the faculty of medicine; and Bachelor of Science, Engineer of Mines, Civil Engineer, Metallurgical Engineer, Electrical Engineer, and Sanitary Engineer, upon the recommendation of the faculty of the School of Mines; and

c. The degrees of Master of Arts, Master of Laws, and Doctor of Philosophy, upon the`recommendation of the university council.1

THE WORK OF THE SEVERAL FACULTIES.

THE SCHOOL OF ARTS OR COLLEGE PROPE

The minimum age on entrance is 15 years. The curriculum covers four years.

The studies of the freshman and sophomore years are for the most part obligatory. In the junior year, rhetoric, philosophy, history, and political economy are required, and eleven hours per week of elective studies are allowed and must be filled. In the senior year the studies are wholly elective and must occupy not less than fifteen hours per week. The first year courses of the school of law, the school of mines in any of its departments, and the college of physicians and surgeons are open to seniors.

THE SCHOOL OF LAW.

This is a professional school designed "to prepare students for practice in any State of the Union." Before Mr. Low became president it was almost entirely in the hands of its founder, Prof. Theodore

1

1 Columbia College in the City of New York, etc., p. 16.

W. Dwight, and, while held by common opinion one of the best two law schools in the country, it was not entirely suited to the conditions of the later times. President Low found it necessary to reorganize it in the interests of more scholarly legal education, as well as to make it harmonize with his general policy of reorganization. Let him tell the story of the change in his own words:1

"The most important internal educational change of the year has been the reorganization of the law school. This was made necessary by the announcement in January of Prof. Theodore W. Dwight, the warden of the school, of his purpose to retire as an emeritus professor on July 1, 1891, under the resolutions of the trustees already alluded to. Dr. Dwight's notice of his intended retirement was followed almost immediately by the resignations of Profs. George Chase and Robert D. Petty, which resignations were accepted, as presented, to take effect June 30, at the end of the academic year. It is greatly to be regretted that in the law school the old order could not have passed into the new as easily and pleasantly as it has done in all other parts of the university. Historically the situation was exceptionally difficult, the initiative as to many points which properly belonged with the president having been with the warden from the formation of the school; but a fuller explanation of the complete break which has taken place is to be found in the wide differences of opinion which prevailed as to the future policy of the school. The differences between the new arrangement of the course and the old are clearly indicated by the following points:

"1. The new course assumes three years as the unit of the course, instead of adding a third year to the old two-years' course, as though that were a thing complete. This is in accordance with the report of the special committee, to which was referred the subject of a thirdyear's course in the law school, presented to the trustees May 7, 1888. "2. The new course is based upon the concurrent study of different subjects.

"3. It permits the study of public law as part of the equipment for the degree.

"4. It adjusts the hours so as to discourage office work during the first two years, while facilitating it in the third year.

"5. The hours have been so arranged as to throw open to the students of law many privileges of study in other departments of university instruction which would otherwise be denied to them.

"6. The new course offers a broader range of choice in legal subjects by establishing numerous elective studies.

"7. It relieves the professors from repeating the same work twice a day, but it requires their attendance at the school through the entire academic year."

This change has been productive of good results. The relative

1 President's Report, 1891, pp. 17-18.

number of students taking law without a college degree grows each year less, and the character of the work is distinctly broader and more scholarly.

THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS.

Consolidated with Columbia in 1891 and now one of the university faculties, several notable steps in the line of progress have been taken by the medical school. President Low says in his report for 1891:

The medical school has been importantly strengthened in those directions which make for more thorough teaching and in the laboratories which are to conduct original research, while the multiplied opportunities of a great university are thrown open at once to the students of medicine.

The course of study, which was at that time three years, has now become a four-years' course. The notable features of the extension to four years are "the great increase in clinical instruction available to students in small groups," and the introduction of elective courses in the fourth year.

THE SCHOOL OF MINES.

This is a polytechnic school. It offers the following seven courses of instruction, each of four years' duration: Mining engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, metallurgy, geology and paleontology, analytical and applied chemistry, and architecture. There is also a graduate course of two years in sanitary engineering. It offers, also, university courses for the degrees of master of arts and doctor of philosophy in all the departments to graduates of Columbia or other colleges with equivalent curricula.

THE SCHOOL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE.

"1. The school of political science, established in 1880, embraces courses in constitutional history and constitutional law, history of political theories, political economy and social science, Roman law and comparative jurisprudence, administrative law, international law, and history.

"The faculty aims to give a complete general view of all the subjects of public polity, both internal and external, from the threefold point of view of history, law, and philosophy. The prime aim is, therefore, the development of all the branches of the political sciences. The secondary and practical objects are:

"a. To fit young men for all the political branches of the public service.

"b. To give an adequate economic and legal training to those who intend to make journalism their profession.

"c. To supplement, by courses in public law and comparative jurisprudence, the instruction in private municipal law offered by the faculty of law.

"d. To educate teachers of political science."1

1 Columbia College, etc. Historical sketch and present condition. 1893. p. 30.

The courses are arranged in three groups: (1) History and political philosophy; (2) Public law and comparative jurisprudence; (3) Political economy and social science.

The seminarium is an important feature of this school, every stimulus to original work being given. The results of this work have been of gratifying excellence. A series of studies in history, economics, and public law, embodying the best results of this original work, has completed its fourth volume, and has received wide and favorable recognition. The well-known Political Science Quarterly, now in its tenth volume, is the organ of this faculty.

The competition for fellowships shows something of the spirit of the work of this school. The dean's report for 1894 shows 98 applicants for university fellowships in political science, of whom 36 were recommended by the faculty as worthy the appointment. Only 9 were awarded fellowships.

In 1894 a chair of sociology was established by the appointment of Prof. Franklin H. Giddings.

The chief obstacle to the highest efficiency of the work in this school seems to be the large number of law students who take this work as a secondary matter. Of the 226 students enrolled in this school in 1894, 151 were also law students. The majority of the law students are not college graduates. Many of the other students in this school are not college graduates. In fact, of the 226 mentioned above, only 139 were full university students, and of these 40 had only finished the junior year in college.

Fortunately, however, the growth of the percentage of college graduates is clearly perceptible. The school has one of the ablest and best organized faculties in political science in the world.

THE SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY.

This school was established in 1890, and is in a sense the realization of the school of letters once planned. It has charge of the university courses in philosophy, psychology, philology, and letters. This somewhat anomalous restriction in scope was probably rendered necessary by the preemptions of other faculties, such as that of political science and of pure science. This logical inconsistency in titles, however, has no evil effect upon the practical work of the school. In 1895 it offered the following courses:

'The relations to the Teachers' College have become more intimate with the incorporation of the latter in the university.

The first movement toward the establishment of this school was the creation of a department of biology in 1891. This was partly an outgrowth of the consolidation with the College of Physicians and Surgeons. It served as a connecting link between the medical school and the university, and also developed the policy to provide for advanced scientific study.

The school of pure science was established the next year. It contains the following departments: Mathematics, mechanics, physics, chemistry, mineralogy, astronomy, geology, biology, botany, physiology, anatomy, bacteriology. The number of students attending courses during the first and second years may be summarized as follows:

"At the close of the academic year 1892-93 the trustees authorized the formation of a corporation to be known as the Columbia University Press, to which they granted the use of that name, subject to revocation, in case of need, at the option of the trustees. This corporation has since been formed, with the president of Columbia College as its president. Its object is to provide for the printing and publication of meritorious works on all subjects, after the manner of the Clarendon Press at Oxford. It has designated Messrs. Macmillan & Co. as its publishing agents. The first book to be brought out, bearing its imprint, very appropriately was Classical Studies in Honour of Henry Drisler. Already, however, the Press has performed another service of great value to the college. A committee was appointed “to consider and report on the desirability and practicability of securing uniformity and cooperation in the publication of college documents (contributions to literature and science), and of the several journals edited by faculties of the college." As a result of the labors of this committee, all the serial studies and contributions from departments