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"The Institution whose anniversary we this day celebrate, is founded on the principles maintained in this address. It is the Granville Literary and Theological Institution, and its name fully indicates its character; it is sacred to Learning-it is consecrated to Religion. In its maturity, it contemplates a College of high order, and a Divinity School for the thorough training of young men for the christian ministry. But as it is the part of wisdom to take things as we find them, and make them better as far and as fast as we can, this Institution adjusts itself to the state of things necessarily existing in a country whose institutions, civil, literary, and religious, are immature. It is, therefore, a Preparatory School, where young men are fitted for admission into the regular college course, and where are taught all the branches of a practical English education—an incipient college, with a Freshmen, a Sophomore, and a Junior class duly organized a school of the prophets, in which young ministers and candidates for the ministry, of various degrees of literary attainment, may receive such instruction in theology as shall best comport with their age, previous study and pecuniary means, and with the pressing wants of the churches."

TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT of the Trustees of the Ohio Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, to the Legislature of the State of Ohio, for the year 1838. Columbus, 1839.

The number of pupils in the Asylum is seventy, of which number fiftyeight are supported by the State. The school went into operation in Oct., 1829. Since that time it has received 152 pupils; 102 of them came from families which contained one mute each, 24 from families containing two mutes each, 19 from families containing three mutes each, and 7 from families containing four mutes each. In no instance is the misfortune believed to be hereditary. The deafness of 64 was congenital. The number of mutes in Ohio is estimated at one to every 2156 of the whole population, or 700 to 800 for the the whole State. The census of the United States for 1830 gives 6106 as the whole number in the country. The expenses for the Asylum for the past year were $8,548. It is under the superintendence of H. N. Hubbard.

SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT of the Trustees of the New England Institution for the Education of the Blind. Boston, 1839.

The whole number of pupils who regularly attend the school is 60, of whom 52 can read the books in raised letters; 25 can write a legible hand; all above eight years of age are well grounded in grammar, arithmetic and geography; while some have made very respectable acquisitions in natural philosophy, algebra, geometry and astronomy. Almost all the pupils devote a large portion of their

time to music. They have, almost without exception, a musical ear. Fortyfive play upon the piano forte, and eighteen upon the organ. We are pleased to learn that the spacious building known as the Mount Washington House, in South Boston, is to be occupied by this Institution. The site is healthful and the accommodations extensive. The labors of the unwearied and accomplished Superintendent for the benefit of the blind, not only in this institution, but all the world over, merit the highest praise.

AN ADDRESS delivered to the Students of the Louisville Medical Institute, in presence of the citizens of the place, at the commencement of the second session of the Institute, Nov. 13, 1838. By Joshua B. Flint, M. D., Professor of Anatomy. Louisville, Ky. Prentice & Weissenger, 1838.

We have been much pleased with this address. The author modestly calls it "some miscellaneous remarks on the objects of the medical profession, the personal qualities and accomplishments calculated to secure success therein, and on some of the sources and aids of medical improvement. The suggestions he offers are appropriate and valuable, and his opinions, where they differ from the common, are given with freedom and boldness. He evidently possesses a genuine reverence and enthusiasm for his profession, and elevated notions of the standard of character and attainment which shall sustain its true dignity. His remarks on the importance of a literary character to the profession are most pertinent, and we regret to believe too much needed. We quote a single paragraph on this subject.

"We cannot be faithful to our profession, as it seems to me, under the present system of medical education, which scarcely recognises general scholarship, and especially classical learning, even among the collateral branches of study.

Medical schools will continue to exhibit a capital defect in their organization, until some good measure of attainments in science and literature shall be made a condition of matriculation. For rarely after entering on the absorbing engagements of practice, will the physician have resolution, if he have the inclination, to recur to elementary studies which he has omitted in youth, but which are essential to any subsequent proficiency. These preliminary requisitions, must, of course, be moderate at first, but might gradually be augmented, until the candidate for medical honors should possess a respectable share of general scholarship before entering on studies peculiarly professional."

The observations here recorded, which Prof. Flint has made on the Medical Schools of Europe are at variance with the notions commonly entertained among us. Yet we have strong confidence

in the substantial accuracy and fidelity of his statements. We know him to be a strict and close observer, and one whose judgments are as freely given as they are independently formed. Of the French school he says,

"Generalizing extremely the expression of my objections, I should say that the School' is weakened by the excessive elaborateness of its organization, and burdened by the multitude and detail of its lectures-that anatomical instruction, both normal and pathological, is too deeply tinctured with transcendentalism-and that the practice in the hospitals is vitiated by a servile adherence to antiquated rules, or a spirit of rash, unjustifiable experiment in the present practitioners. In one or other of these two extremes, you may arrange all you can see of medical or surgical treatment in the general hospitals of Paris-the juste milieu, so much talked of by their politicians, has no place in the counsels of their physicians."

Of the English,

"In a critical notice of the medical institutions of London, I could by no means represent them as faultless. Among the patients in some of the hospitals there appeared slovenly habits of person and apparel, quite inconsistent with Hospital hygiene, and altogether out of character among a people so remarkably neat in all such particulars, as are the English. In others, the dietetic arrangements seemed to be very exceptionable, the errors being generally on the side of excess, and in most of these institutions the records of the larger part of the cases are quite too meagre and imperfect to present anything like an instructive history of the disease or its treat

ment."

"The British surgeons are reposing too long on the transcendant merits of John Hunter, and among their physicians, the imitators of the assiduous Baillie are far less numerous than his admirers."

He seems to have formed a very high opinion of the Medical Faculty in Italy, "The Faculty of Florence," he says,

"Though less ostentatious than their Gallic neighbors, are quite as assiduous and scientific, more deferential to the common sense of the profession, more ready to appreciate the progress of the art in other nations, and therefore in a more promising condition for advancement themselves."

"On the whole, if an American medical student should determine to pursue the elementary branches abroad, I should advise him to repair at once to Florence. The language is more readily acquired than any foreign tongue, the expenses of living are less than in any foreign Capitol, and a comfortable passage to Leghorn may generally be secured from some Atlantic port, for a less price than is demanded by the packets to Liverpool or Havre."

* In one respect, however, the routine of instruction is on a better plan than that which is pursued among us-there are but three lectures a day at the School,' during the term, and no one Professor lectures oftener than three times a week.

The testimony which he gives to the merits of the American schools, is flattering and we doubt not just.

"Without depreciating at all the advantages of foreign travel and observation, it is but just to domestic institutions, which have been reared and organized throughout the country with much liberality, to affirm, that a persevering student may become master of all that is positive in the present state of science, and of whatever is most material in the qualifications of a practitioner, without crossing the Atlantic. The refinements, embellishments, luxuries of professional education, await him, in tempting variety abroad-its substantial, essential elements may be commanded at home."

We cannot leave this pamphlet without saying that it has seldom been our lot to have met a book so disfigured with typographical

errors.

SATIRICAL HITS AT THE PEOPLE'S EDUCATION. pp. 88. Published by the "American Common School Union,” N. Y.

If there can be satire without wit, there may be satire in this pamphlet. If not, there is a misnomer. The plates are somewhat humorous, the prose is almost purely didactic.

THE TEACHER: or Moral Influences employed in the instruction and government of the young. New stereotype edition; with an additional chapter on "The First Day in School." By Jacob Abbott, late Principal of the Mount Vernon Female School, Boston, Mass. pp. 314. Boston: published by Whipple & Dairell. 1839.

We are glad to see a new edition of this valuable work. It is written in the peculiarly sprightly and interesting style which has rendered the works of this author so wonderfully popular, and is filled with principles clearly illustrated and practical suggestions of the highest value. Indeed it is eminently a practical work, written by one who has had much experience as a teacher, who knows intimately his wants, and who has more than almost any other man, the power of skilful adaptation. The work is designed particularly for young teachers, but the old and experienced may gather from it hints of new methods, and cannot fail to be pleased at least by the spirit of sincere and earnest interest in his work which pervades the whole of it.

While we heartily commend the work both in its plan and execution, we would interpose a caution; and we do this the more confidently, because we know that those features of the book to which we shall refer, have been, doubtless beyond the intent of the author,

the occasion of errors and mistakes, and unfortunate practice. The reader who takes this book for authority, and on many points it is most excellent authority, ought to remember that it does not treat of the whole subject of school discipline. It is intended mainly to show the value and teach some of the uses of moral influence in school government. The fault is perhaps not in the author, if the reader understands this phrase, as excluding authority, and equivalent to "suasion " only. Such is the current meaning of the phrase. It does not include fear, which is most certainly a moral influence. It does not include submission to what the teacher perceives to be reasonable; a submission which is at the basis of all authority; but only to what the pupil perceives to be such. Now the doctrine of authority, though fully asserted in this book is not the subject of it, and therefore very properly not made prominent in it. But the reader, who would read wisely, must remember that moral influences are only some of the means, and we venture to say, taking that phrase in its common acceptation, not the surest means of discipline and of education; and if as a teacher he gives to them only a place in his plans he will assuredly fail.

The question merits a careful consideration from the friends of education, whether, in our abhorrence of violence and brute force, we are not rushing to the opposite and worse extreme of disregarding authority, or of deceiving ourselves by contrivances to secure its effects, while we disguise and conceal the thing itself. The child must learn obedience, for the man must practise it. He must trust to the conclusions of a superior reason, while he cannot yet apprehend the principles on which that reason decides. No one doubts this in respect to childhood. Yet is it not as really true of youth? Nay is it not the highest effort of our maturest manhood to yield implicitly to a reason higher than our own, whose judgments we cannot fathom, and the ground of whose decisions are utterly beyond our reach?

Another error into which the reader may fall, is to forget that the examples with which the book abounds, are mere illustrations of principles, and thus be induced to try precisely the same methods, or wait for the occurrence of exactly similar cases. If the principle becomes apparent, the occasions for its use will be infinitely various, and the method of their application will vary with the circumstances of every school and the temper and habit of every teacher. The plans which would be eminently successful in the hands of one, would, if strictly followed, prove complete failures with another.

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