Department of French.

Several changes will be made next year in the Department of French, as is shown by the recent pamphlet of courses. Undoubtedly the most important of these is the founding of a professorship in Comparative Literature, since it involves a rearrangement of several courses. Professor A. R. Marsh will be the lecturer in this course for the year 1900-01; and the aim will be to give students a clear and comprehensive idea of the development of European literature, from the Middle Ages to the middle of the nineteenth century. With a view to securing better system in the arrangement of work, courses 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 form a chronological series; and courses 10, 11 and 12 are devoted to special topics. Two courses have also been transferred from the Department of English to that of French.

The Lowell Memorial Library of Romance Languages, devoted to the uses of advanced students, now contains about 1200 volumes, more than double the number in its possession last year. If it continues to increase at the present rate it will eventually supplant the Gore Hall Library in this class of book.