Cicero and Horace as the President shall direct, and shall be accustomed to apply the principles of criticism." Scientific studies crept into the college curriculum very slowly. Chemistry had appeared in Columbia College in 1793, but it was untimely fruit. Down to 1830, or even later, there was little or no botany, geology or mineralogy taught in the colleges. Before 1810 the great geological survey of the State of New York had been begun, and, as a result, we see in the college plans of study a recognition of the light that had dawned. Electricity and galvanism made their appearance with the great wave which brought in the telegraph. A chemical laboratory was unknown in an American college before the time of John William Draper, and it was not till 1855, when ́ the Laboratory of Union College was opened, and, in 1864, when the Columbia College School of Mines was organized, that New York colleges could be said to have laboratories. The credit of initiating the elective system of studies in colleges is due to Dr. Nott, at Union College. We find, indeed, that, in 1797, it was proposed to give an option between Greek and French in that institution; but it was not till 1828 that the plan is reported to the Regents as established, of having a regular scientific course, co-ordinated throughout with the classical course, with studies which should be allowed as alternatives. The plan has continued in force since that time, and has been developed into a system of electives such as now exists in nearly all colleges. SCHOOLS OF SCIENCE. The great impulse given to industrial development in the State, by the building of the Erie canal and the construction of lines of railways, called in our country for a new type of education. The demand for civil and mechanical engineers brought into existence institutions and departments of instruction for teaching these branches. The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1826 by General Stephen Van Rensselaer, was the first of this class. Other institutions followed more slowly. Union College established its Department of Civil Engineering in 1845, and Columbia College its School of Mines in 1864. The rise of the system of agricultural colleges in the United States dates from an effort in the State of New York to found the People's College. To effect this object, the bill making the grant of land to the States for establishing "Colleges for Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts" was carried through Congress. It was passed in 1864. The portion of land coming to the State of New York was nine hundred and ninety thousand acres. This immense inheritance was wisely bestowed by the State in such a way as to bring the best results. In 1865 Ezra Cornell made the munificent offer to the State to give to a university two hundred acres of land in Ithaca, and a money endowment of $500,000, provided the State would bestow on it the proceeds of this land grant. This offer was accepted, and the Legislature, in 1865, incorporated Cornell University, bestowing on it the proceeds of the land grant, and constituting it the State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. FEMALE COLLEGES.- Female education has kept pace with other departments in New York, and to-day can point with satisfaction to five colleges devoted entirely to the education of women, and four others in which they are received on equal terms with men. The earliest efforts in the direction of a higher education for women were doubtless those of Mrs. Emma Willard at Waterford and Troy, and although she never realized her plan of establishing a college for women on a broad and permanent foundation, she did much toward preparing the way for what has been since accomplished for female education. Elmira Female College, chartered in 1855, and Ingham University, chartered with college powers in 1857, were the earliest institutions authorized to confer degrees on women in this State. The State aided Elmira College with a grant of $25,000, and Ingham University with a grant of $5,000. In 1861 Vassar College was founded with more distinct purposes and plans. It was designed to create an institution which should do for women what our regular colleges do for men. Rutgers Female College began its collegiate existence in 1867. The last of the sisterhood is Wells College, organized in 1870, which two good and liberal men, Mr. Henry Wells and Mr. E. B. Morgan, have generously endowed. MEDICAL COLLEGES. The laws of the State have always dealt with medical colleges as standing on a different basis from those for science and the arts. Columbia College was vested with the rights and powers of a university, and therefore could confer medical degrees. So, too, those colleges which were chartered on the same model had like powers. Under these powers Columbia College and Geneva College, and the University of the city of New York established medical departments, gave medical education and conferred the degree of Doctor of Medicine. The establishment of separate medical colleges was begun by the incorporation, in 1807, of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of New York. This was so unusual a proceeding that the Legislature passed a special act empowering the Board of Regents to grant the charter. Subse 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 other property....... $7,545,518 98 1,621,670 71 12,357,862 35 Total value of property. .... $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: 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: |