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quently, in 1812, a College of Physicians and Surgeons was authorized by the Legislature and chartered by the Board at Fairfield, Herkimer county But, in the case of both these colleges, the power to confer the degree of Doctor of Medicine was vested in the Board of Regents. This continued down to 1860, when (the Fairfield College having closed) the power to confer the medical degree was, in the case of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, transferred to its Board of Trustees. The later acts of incorporation, such as those establishing the Bellevue Medical College in 1861, the Homœopathic Medical College of New York in 1860, and others, vested the power of conferring degrees in the Boards of Trustees. And this is the established system at the present time. But the possession of a medical degree did not, in the earlier part of the history of the State, entitle the holder to practice medicine. There were two sources from which such licenses might emanate: First, the diploma of the Board of Regents was a sufficient license; second, the State and County Medical Societies were authorized and directed to examine and license candidates on certain prescribed conditions. One by one, however, the medical colleges obtained from the Legislature special enactments sanctioning their diplomas as licenses to practice medicine, until all are now included.

The act of 1853 made general provision for the chartering of medical colleges by the Board of Regents, and established as a condition that each such college shall possess an endowment of $50,000, shall be subject to the visitation of the Regents, and may grant diplomas to persons who have studied medicine a specified time. and are duly qualified. But the good to be anticipated from this law was in part defeated by the practice, which still continued, of seeking special charters from the Legislature. In 1880 a medical registration law was enacted, requiring all physicians and surgeons to be registered, and giving to medical diplomas of incorporated medical colleges the force of licenses, and repealing all other powers to license except by the Board of Regents on examination.

LAW SCHOOLS. The first professorship of law in an American college is believed to have been established at Philadelphia in 1790. A more important and more successful experiment was, however, that at Litchfield, Connecticut, where Timothy Reeves, in connection with Judge Gould, established, a school of law which attracted students. from all parts of the country. In the State of New York there were various early private schools of law, but the first incorporated school was that at Albany, begun in 1851. The Law School of Columbia

College and the Law Department of the University of the City of New York were each begun in 1858, although lectures on law had been given many years before by Judge Kent in Columbia College. The plans of study in all the law schools of the State are nearly the same, and include courses of lectures on the several departments of law, combined with the study of text-books and practice in mootcourts. The degree of Bachelor of Laws is conferred upon those who successfully complete the course of study. For admission to the bar, the present law of the State requires an examination under the direction of the Supreme Court, according to regulations drawn up by the Court of Appeals.

SUMMARY STATEMENT. It only remains to give a brief statement as to the present condition of the colleges and professional schools comprised in the University. In all there are forty separate incorporations, including the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, which is also the Medical Department of Columbia College, and the Albany Medical College, the Albany Law School, and the Dudley Observatory, which, although incorporated separately, are also departments of Union University. In the summary which follows this sketch, will be found some account of these institutions. For purposes of comparison it will be convenient to arrange them in distinct groups: 1. Colleges of Arts: 2. Medical Colleges; 3. Law Schools; 4. Colleges of Science.

In the table given below is presented a statement of the property of all classes of colleges for the year 1883. This statement is one of great interest, indicating, as it does, the very large investment in the institutions designed for a liberal education. Of this large sum, however, more than one-third is invested in buildings and grounds. This circumstance indicates what is really a very lamentable fact in regard to these colleges, that a great number of them are very insufficiently endowed.

PROPERTY OF THE COLLEGES.

Value of buildings and grounds... .

Value of educational collections..

Value of other property.......

Total value of property.

$7,545,518 98 1,621,670 71 12,357,862 35

$21,525,052 04

In the following table is summed up the statistics of the several classes of institutions enumerated below, giving for each class the number of schools, the number of instructors, the number of students

and the number of graduates for the year 1884, with the total number of graduates from the beginning:

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1. COLLEGES OF ARTS.- Under this head are included those institutions or departments of institutions whose end is the Baccalaureate degree. Of these there are twenty-three, of which number five are exclusively for women, and four are for men and women. The following table gives the number of instructors, the number of students and the number of graduates for the year 1884:

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2. MEDICAL COLLEGES. The institutions here classed as medical colleges include several groups, viz.: 1. Colleges of Medicine and Surgery, comprising the several institutions having the legal right to confer the degree of Doctor of Medicine; 2. Colleges of Pharmacy, which confer no degree, but which grant certificates as graduates in Pharmacy; 3. Colleges of Dentistry, which confer the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery; 4. Veterinary Colleges, which confer the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Science. The following table gives the principal facts as to their educational condition:

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3. SCHOOLS OF LAW.- The table given below enumerates the statistics of the Law Schools. They confer the degree of Bachelor of Laws; but the degree does not give the right to practice in the

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3. The Academies of New York.

In the early annals of the Dutch Colony of the New Netherlands there are frequent allusions to the schools which were established for the benefit of the colonists. These schools were, however, of an elementary character and only aimed at teaching to read, write and cipher. The school-masters, like the clergy of that day, were chiefly sent out from Holland, and were in the employ of the Dutch West India Company. The only school of a higher grade, of which we find any trace in the Dutch period, was one established in 1659, when the company, at the carnest petition of the "burgomasters and schepens" of New Amsterdam, sent over Alexander Carolus Curtius. The petition alleges that "the burghers and inhabitants are inclined to have their children instructed in the most useful languages, the chief of which is the Latin tongue;" and that there are no means to do so, nearer than Boston; and expresses the hope that the Latin school may in time "attain to an academy." Rector Curtius, however, did not justify the hopes entertained of him, and was succeeded by Rev. Aegidius Luyck, who was more successful, and maintained the school down to the surrender of the Colony to the English. During the English rule there were various efforts made to maintain a Latin school. Under Governor Dongan, in 1688, such a school was opened in the city by the Jesuit Fathers. And again, when Viscount Cornbury was Governor, by authority of an act passed November 27, 1702, appropriating £50 annually for seven years, a Latin Free School was established under "the ingenious Mr. George Muirson," who was in 1704 duly licensed to instruct the children "in the English, Latin and Greek tongues or languages, and also in the arts of writing and arithmetick." A similar license in 1705 is on record to Mr. Henry Lindley to teach a school in the town of Jamaica. The most important enterprise of this kind, however, was the establishment, in 1732, of a public school to teach Latin, Greek and Mathematics in the city of New York. This was under the charge of Mr. Malcolm, and is believed to have formed the germ of Columbia College. This school was authorized by an act of the General Assembly in 1732, which appropriated for its support for five years the amount received annually for licenses of hawkers and peddlers in the city of New York; to which was added the sum of £40, annually levied by tax. This act specified the number of pupils which were to be received free from the several counties of the State. At the expiration of the five years an extension of one year was obtained, after which the school was probably continued as a private enterprise.

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