DETAILED VIEW OF INSTITUTIONS FOR THE SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION OF WOMEN. The detailed statistics relating to colleges and seminaries for women are presented in Table 44, Divisions A and B.

For the purpose of showing the status of these institutions more clearly than can be done by the tabulated statistics alone, additional information drawn from reports and other official statements, precedes each division of the table.

REMARKS ON TABLE 44, DIVISION A.

Table 44, Division A, includes a group of institutions whose admission requirements, standards of instruction, and general organization accord with those that have long been characteristic of colleges of liberal arts. Their work is essentially collegiate, in which respect they differ from the older seminaries for women, which, while making more or less provision for the distinctive studies of the college curriculum, are schools for general instruction.

The advantages of endowments, equipments, and teaching force concentrated upon the work of superior instruction, and of the associated efforts of a company of students thoroughly prepared for the pursuit of advanced studies, can not be questioned. The want of these conditions gave rise to the movement for the higher education of women that has swept through the leading nations of the world in the last twenty years, with results that have been productive of the highest good to individual students, and of deep and permanent advantage to society. The United States has been foremost in this movement; its example has been stimulating to other nations, and the history of what has here been accomplished, of the methods and the outcome of the various institutions which have arisen in response to the demand, is the constant subject of inquiry and study on the part of those who are interested in similar efforts in foreign countries.

The movement in the United States has resulted in opening to women the doors of many colleges which were originally limited to men, and in several special endowments for colleges for women.

The latter, which is in general the more costly experiment, has been confined so far to a few States. Between 1855 and 1358 five colleges for women were chartered in New York, two of these, viz, Rutgers College and Ingham University, having been incorporated originally as seminaries; the latter received a college charter in 1852 and the former in 1867. Massachusetts followed with Wellesley in 1870 and Smith College in 1871. The two latest additions to the group of institutions here considered bring into the movement new elements of power. Harvard Annex has solved a problem which has long engaged the attention of those seeking to secure for women the highest intellectual advantages. It brings within their reach all the rich provision accumulated in the oldest centre of intellectual life in our country, and furnishes a precedent soon undoubtedly to be followed by other universities.

Bryn Mawr, on the contrary, affords convincing evidence that the cause of woman's higher education will not be allowed to hang upon the chance of a liberal spirit in existing institutions, or to languish for lack of funds and plans and foundations.

In giving separate tabulation to the colleges in Division A of the table, the purpose has not been to indicate that their work differ essentially from that which is carried on elsewhere; the difference is in the conditions under which the work is maintained. One feature distinguishing these institutions from other seminaries for women is the definite classification of their students. This makes it easy to ascertain the extent of the demand made upon them for collegiate training.

The bearing of the statistics upon this point, it should be observed, can not be well understood without reference to the location of the colleges. They are grouped together in the North Atlantic Division of the United States, from whence the larger proportion of their students are drawn. With this consideration in mind it is interesting to note the statistics of instructors and students as reported for the successive years from 1877 to 1887, inclusive, in the college departments only:

THE HARVARD ANNEX, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women, popularly called "The Harvard Annex," has for its object to repeat for women the instruction given in Harvard College to men. The course leading to the Society's A. B. certificate is the same as that leading in the college to the A. B. degree,-the requirements for admission are the same, the identical papers (printed by the college) being used, and the papers used at semi-annual and final examinations in the college courses are used in the "Annex" for its corresponding courses. Instruction is given by the college teachers (and by no others) and the result of the work of the women is passed upon by the same persons. The college allows the women the free use of its extension library, and the "Annex" is called upon to provide but a few books of reference. The "Annex " has its own laboratories of zoology, botany, chemistry, and physics.

Students may enter for a four years' course or for partial or special courses. To meet the variety in the amount and kind of work, three different forms of certificate, to be signed by the instructors, are awarded. The highest, for the full college course, corresponds, as credentials for work done, to the A. B. degree; the second certifies to a liberal course of study during four years, in which other branches are accepted as equivalent for Latin or Greek, while a third is an annual certificate adapted to shorter terms of study.

The attendance for each year from 1879 to 1887-88, inclusive, with the distribution of the students, so far as reported, is as follows:

1879-80. 1880-81. 1881-82. 1882-83. 1883-84. 1884-85. 1885-86. 1886-87. 1887-88.

Twenty-four States have been represented in the attendance upon the Annex during successive years. Massachusetts, as would naturally be expected, has furnished the majority of the students, the highest number coming from this State in any one year being sixty-seven. The State having the next highest representation in any one year was New York, which sent seven students in 1887. Minnesota and Maine have been represented in a single year by three students each, Connecticut, Michigan, and Ohio by two each. No other State has had at one time more than one representative. All the New England States, two Middle Atlantic, two South Atlantic, two South Central, ten North Central States, and California appear in the geographical list. The steady increase in the annual attendance and the ever extending area from which the patronage comes, show that the provision here made answers to a demand that is neither transitory nor local. The question very natually arises why this demand should exist, and what is more should make itself urgently felt in view of the provision made for the higher education of women in colleges endowed exclusively for them. The answer is given so clearly in the reports of the Annex that we can not do better than quote from that

source.

In his report for 1883 the secretary says: "Women seeking opportunities for the higher education naturally prefer to find them at an institution which is allied, at least, to one established and carried on for men, because they think that there they will be in the line of progress. They feel that on the perfecting of methods and the best application of educational forces the entire body of instructors in such an institution, as well as in all others like it, is united. Present them a course of instruction different from that offered to men, and they do not eye it askance because they think it not so good, but because it is probably just out of the line upon which progress and improvement are to be expected. This is one of the reasons why thoughtful women have less confidence in courses of instruction especially prepared for them than they have in that one upon which the wisdom of men has for generations been working and is still working.

"The society is encouraged by the experience of the past year, because (among other reasons) it has shown more clearly than ever before that there is not only a paramount educational usefulness in the instruction it has afforded, but also a money value in the different forms of certificates that it offers."

As to the classes of women with whom these considerations have weight, the reports are equally explicit.

The ladies of the executive committee, in their report for 1883, make the following statement: "Were every facility offered them, however, we hardly suppose that women would ever look upon a college course of study subsequent to their school life as an inevitable or even necessary part of their education; nor do I think it would seem to any of us desirable that they should do so. But this being granted, there still remain quite enough for whom such a completion of their earlier training is important in view of their occupation as teachers, and if there are others who ask it purely for its own sake, we surely should not deny them.

"With reference to the former class, we must remember that our interests are at one with theirs. The standard of our public and private schools can never be a matter of

indifference to parents, and that standard can hardly fail to be raised by the closer relation of the schools to the universities. Thus far our Annex students have belonged to the classes of women named above. They have been young women fitting as teachers, or older women who are already teachers, but who allow themselves, out of their small earnings, the rare luxury of a little change from teaching to learning, that they may go back to their work refreshed and better prepared; or women of scholarly tastes, with means to gratify them, who come, as I have said, to study under higher auspices simply because they enjoy it. We have had as yet no flighty students, brought by the novelty of the thing, and very little fragmentary, half-digested work."

The proportion of students attracted to the Annex from the simple desire of a high order of instruction increases somewhat, apparently, although the statistics upon this point are meagre, but the larger proportion of each year's attendance has been of students preparing for the teaching profession. The evidences are abundant that their opportunities for remunerative employment and their actual power as teachers and consequent satisfaction in the work are greatly increased by the training.

It was not until the sixth year of its operations, viz, 1885, that the Annex came into possession of a building. This greatly increased its advantages and its influence. The report for 1887 states: "In view of the increasing numbers, the society has secured additional lots adjoining its estate which nearly double its extent, and will allow for future additions, for gymnasium, laboratories, etc. In fact, one building on the newly acquired estate has already, by the liberality of friends, been transformed into a laboratory of chemistry, a convenience much needed, and classes are actually at work in its cheerful apartments.

"The physical laboratory, situated in our main builing, proved inadequate for the use of our classes last year, as was stated in the last Annual Report, and the executive committee determined to enlarge it. This has been inexpensively accomplished, and there is now twice as much available room as there was before. There is still great need of apparatus both for physics and chemistry, and the funds at the society's command are not sufficient to supply it."

Efforts to secure a permanent endowment fund were begun by the ladies of the executive committee in 1883. They have succeeded in raising a fund of $70,000, and their efforts in this direction continue with unabated energy.

BRYN MAWR COLLEGE, BRYN MAWR, PA.

The tabulated statistics of Bryn Mawr College show a steady increase in attendance during the three years of its history, and the president reports that the entrance examinations for 1887-88 give evidence of a better preparation on the part of candidates than formerly. During the year the trustees have added three members to the faculty, as associates in English, mathematics, and history. A physical laboratory has also been erected and a department of physics added.

The curriculum is arranged on the group system, which is described as follows in the programme for 1887-88: "In all departments as yet organized there is a course of five hours a week for two years, called a major course. Whenever one year of this course is of such a nature that it can be taken separately it is marked as a minor course. It is required of every candidate for a degree to take two such major courses as shall be homogeneous, or shall complete each other, and major courses which fulfil this condition are designated as groups. It is meant that the student, under this system, should lay the foundations of a specialist's knowledge, and the required studies, namely, English, philosophy, and science, or history and science, are intended in part to supplement the group, and in part to insure a more liberal training than could be achieved did every student combine elective studies at pleasure.

"The two years' required course in English includes a general introduction into the study of language. English literature will be treated with steady reference to the comparative history of literature; and the entire course will be so planned as to give unity and doraestic application to the pursuits of students of philology, and to acquaint students of science or of history, in so far as this is possible in a special course, with the results, scope, and methods of the study of language and literature. The required two years in science or in science and history permit the student of chemistry and biology to pursue both branches of the biological course, or to take a major course in physics; and they insure to the student of history and of language for one year at least the same kind of instruction and discipline as is received by the scientific student. The one year's course in philosophy is a general introduction into the study of the laws, conditions, and history of thought."

A tabular statement of the courses leading to a degree is here presented:

The "minor courses" in the above table are known as the required studies; the "two major courses" as the group. All studies whatsoever fall under one of these heads: "required studies, group, or free electives."

The following statement from the president's report for 1886-87 shows the subjects chosen by the students for their major courses during 1885 and 1886:

"By forty-six students that entered in the years 1885 and 1886, the following major courses have been selected: Greek and Latin, 15; Greek and English, 1; Greek and mathematics, 4; Latin and English, 1; Latin and German, 1; English and French, 1; English and German, 3; German and French, 4; mathematics and physics, 1; history and political science, 5; chemistry and animal biology, 9; chemistry and vegetal biology, 1. Thus it appears that of twenty-six who chose two languages in combination, fifteen took the two ancient ones, eight took modern ones, and three combined an ancient and a modern language. The proportion selecting physics would doubtless have been larger had there been a department of physics during the first two years of the college."

Bryn Mawr College awards five fellowships annually, "one in Greek, one in English, one in mathematics, one in history, and one in biology. They are intended to be an indorse ment of previous attainments and entitle the holder to free tuition, a furnished room in the college buildings, and the sum of $350 yearly. They are open to graduates of Bryn Mawr College, or of any other college of good standing. No one may compete that has not a college degree or a certificate of prolonged study under well-known instructors; and, generally speaking, the fellowship will be given to the candidate that has studied longest or whose work affords the best promise of future success."

The Bryn Mawr European Fellowship is also awarded "annually to a graduate of Bryn Mawr College on the ground of excellence in scholarship. The holder receives the sum of $500, applicable to the expenses of one year's study and residence at some foreign university, English or continental. The choice of a university may be determined by the holder's own preference, subject to the approval of the college."

ART SCHOOLS IN COLLEGES FOR WOMEN.

In both colleges and seminaries for women great attention is given to music and to the plastic arts. In general the provision for instruction in these branches is good, and in many cases it is of a very high order.

The universal recognition of these branches in a scheme of instruction for women is