PRESIDENT ELIOT'S REPORT.

The reports of the President and Treasurer for the College year 1898-99 have been given to the public. The volume contains, besides President Eliot's report to the Board of Overseers, the reports to the President of the Deans of the seventeen departments, the Curators of four museums, and the Dean of Radcliffe College; and the statement of the financial affairs of the University, by Mr. C. F. Adams, 2d, '88, treasurer.

In the matter of obtaining the degree of A.B. in three years, it appears that the movement to diminish the number of courses needed for the degree has become conspicuous not through Faculty legislation looking to that end, but through natural causes. The cutting out of prescribed courses began in 1890 with Physics A, a course counting towards the degree as two-tenths of a full course. Since then the diminution in courses has been working mainly through the English department. The movement is best typified by the fact that now students who anticipate English a with grade A or B must pass satisfactorily in but 16 courses to obtain an A. B. It is interesting to note that for reasons ulterior to the shortening of the College course, the Faculty now demands the identical maximum of courses which was proposed and laid aside by a majority vote in 1889. That "any young man of fair abilities can now procure the degree in three years without hurry and overwork, if he wishes to do so, or if his parents wish to have him" is amply borne out by the President's remarks and by statistics. For at the present time nearly two-fifths of the whole number of students, or 231 men who are graduated, are credited in three years with 16 or more courses.

The President further states that "within a time comparatively short the majority of those who enter the Freshman class will come to College with the purpose of completing the requirements for the degree in three years. The movement will be promoted by the opposition of the Law Faculty to the admission to that School of College Seniors who have not absolutely completed their studies for the A.B. degree."

Attention is called to the report of the Dean of the College on the extraordinarily low death rate among the students of the College. In 1895-96, four died out of 1772; in 1896-97, four out of 1754; in 1897-98, four out of 1819; and in 1898-99, three out of 1851. In concluding, the President remarks: "These facts tend to show that college students are in reality a picked body of youth physically, as well as mentally and morally."

In reference to the popular impression that the College is burdened with scholarships and that a surplussage of such aid tends to place a discount on real deserts, the Dean makes a most enlightening and authoritative statement. By far the greater part of the work done in the College is done by men who are absolutely independent. It is not money alone which stimulates men in scholarly pursuits, all of which is very commendable and perhaps natural. But it is not so well known that "many deserving and needy students fail to win any scholarships; and that there is yet no danger whatever of a superabundance of scholarships in Harvard College."

A very encouraging report is made of the growth of the Lawrence Scientific School in building equipment, in the establishment of the advanced degree of Master of Science, in the increased number and quality of students, the organization of the School and the raising of the requirements for admission.

The spirit of the elective system is well exemplified by the trend of work in the Graduate School where three quarters of the members study the languages and the moral sciences as against one-quarter who pursue mathematics and the physical and natural sciences. In the College the tendency seems to be fully as marked; the undergraduate must be forcibly interested in mathematics and the sciences. There is no indication that the average undergraduate who finds courses in the languages and moral sciences both entertaining and contributory to refinement and culture, will freely elect courses in those sciences which are purely of practical value.

In regard to the administration of scholarships and other aids for undergraduate and graduate students, the President and Fellows outline their position as follows: (1) "They should be really aids, and should not offer complete support; (2) they should not be used to detain in the shelter of the University young men who are over twenty-five years of age, and who should be ready for productive and responsible work out in the active world." To the latter rule one or two exceptions may be made.

The importance of the new admission requirements to Harvard College and the Scientific School may be illustrated by the fact that they were formulated only after three years of discussion by the Faculty. It is said of the new scheme that it must be carefully administered for several years, mainly owing to the fact that the insistence of the Overseers that algebra and elementary history should be required subjects, diminished the range of election open to candidates for admission and at the same time "impaired the best reliance of the Faculty for preventing the total amount of work required of any individual from being raised." The Faculty seems to be well pleased with its labors and in no immediate danger of being confronted with the perplexing problem which it has just disposed of.

President Eliot specifies the need of increased endowment for a new Dental School building, for providing a laboratory of comparative pathology at the Bussey Institute, for the running expenses of the Veterinary Hospital, and for the Herbarium and Botanic Garden. The Arnold Arboretum needs $1,000,000 for proper maintenance, and the Chemical Department could use $350,000 for a new building. The desirability of an immediate enlargement of Gore Hall is also amply pointed out.

The rate of interest on funds invested together as a whole was 4.59 per cent. Repeated deficits in the account called University, College, Scientific School and Library, used for improvements in the public buildings, have reduced the fund from $197,000 in 1869, to $24,000. The total state of the property of the University on July 31, 1899, was $11,767,458.56