THE PRESIDENT'S REPORT.

THE Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer having just appeared, I have attempted to present some of their most interesting features to the readers of the Crimson, hoping that the difficulty of the task of condensation has not obliged me to do injustice to the ability and experience which are displayed in these reports. The condition of the University in almost every department seems to be highly encouraging, and there is a tone of energy and hopefulness in these reports which ought to increase our respect for the government of our Alma Mater.

The average age on admission to college has now increased to eighteen years and five months, which is high enough to secure a proper degree of maturity, and the Faculty have therefore no desire to see it higher. The tendency of the increase of the requisitions for admission to raise the age is counteracted by improved methods in preparatory schools and by the division of the examination. A very interesting table is given of the variety of occupations of the fathers of students, showing that almost every class of society is represented, and that the greater part of the students are neither very rich nor very poor, - the proportions of the poor and of the rich, both small, being about equal. It is also shown that high education is hereditary in this country, as in all others. Another table shows that the constituency of the College has increased within the last ten years; the proportionate representation from New England having decreased and that from the Middle and Western States having increased, chiefly owing to the increase from New York, which now supplies one eighth of the whole number of students. Almost two thousand dollars a year have been added to the funds for the support of meritorious poor students.

As to the Dining-Hall, the average price was $452 a week, of which twenty-two cents per week represented rent in the shape of interest and an annual payment of $1,000 on the debt to the Corporation. This debt was, on September 1, 1875, $47,219.75, which has since been decreased by a gift from Q. A. Shaw, Esq., of $1,000. It is to be wished that other gentlemen would follow his example, for the payments on the debt amounted last year to about $3,900. The change of the title of the College Steward to the "Bursar," which has been thought an affectation, was made in order to distinguish that officer from the steward of the Dining-Hall.

In the Law School the most important event was the establishment of a new professorship and of an admission examination, the latter to take effect in the year 1877-78. In giving the reasons for this innovation, it is shown that, in addition to its necessity in a first-class school, an institution which has real prestige and power will make a money profit by raising its standard, the improved class of students greatly enlarging the reputation and influence of the institution. Here, again, the Western States have increased their representation, supplying now about one fourth of the students, while New England supplies one half, and the number from the South is also larger.

The building fund in the Medical School has reached $134,885, $123,000 having been paid in. The proportionate number of students from without New England and the British Provinces has doubled in six years, and the proportion of students who hold literary and scientific degrees has nearly doubled. In 1872 only twenty per cent of the graduates had spent two years or more in the School, which in 1875 had increased to ninety per cent, while forty-seven per cent had been there three years.

In the Dental School great credit is due to the energy of the professors, who have entirely created it, working even now at merely nominal salaries. It was decided to enlarge the course of instruction, to give instruction throughout the academic year, to raise the standard for the degree, and to require at least one year's residence of every candidate for a degree; and the results are seen in the increase in its numbers and the extension of its range.

The Agassiz Memorial Fund was, on September 1, 1875, $95.553.02, and the Teachers' and Pupils' Fund, $7,142.37, though since that time large additional sums have been collected. The Library has received $54,005 during the year as a fund for the purchase of books, so that it has at present an annual income of more than $10,000 for that purpose. No funds are provided, though they are greatly needed, for salaries, cataloguing, binding, fuel, and service. A new Gymnasium is much needed for the 1,100 students and young officers who are now in Cambridge, its cost being estimated at $25,000. The fees from the students in the University amounted to $168,541.72, $102.884.78 coming from the College. I think that the rents are included in the income from property, which was $218,715.30. The current year will show a large increase from the students, which will counteract the diminution of income from the depression of business.

The report of Dean Gurney shows that 164 students were conditioned last year; also that of the 318 candidates for the last Freshman Class, 294 presented French, forty-one per cent of whom failed, and 24 German of whom twenty-one per cent failed; showing that men trusted too much to a general knowledge of French. 7 Freshmen anticipated Latin, 8 Greek, 9 German, and 10 a whole or part of Mathematics, taking in their place electives in Latin, Greek. Mathematics, German, French, Italian, Spanish, History, Music, and Natural History. Voluntary attendance at recitations is most ingeniously and elaborately discussed, every possible variety of statistics being given. The result is summed up by saying that the average number of absences was two or three times as great as under the old system, though the influence of the change upon the average scholarship of the class was imperceptible either for good or evil. Those who obtained more than seventy-five per cent for the year's work averaged about two absences a week, and it is suggested that all who exceed that limit should be warned, and forfeit their privileges for a continued excess.

The Dean of the Law School shows that in 1872, the first year in which an examination on the studies of the first year was required of candidates for a degree, nineteen passed, while in 1875 almost three times that number were successful. The total amount of the funds of the University, August 31, 1875, was $3,139,217.99 showing a total increase during the year of $275,962.09.

It has only been possible in this short space to present some of the most striking features of this most interesting report. It is a document that ought to be read by every graduate as well as every undergraduate, and it is safe to predict that, were it more generally read, the Class Subscription Fund would be greatly increased by the voluntary subscriptions of our alumni. There is an earnest, manly ring in the reports that shows how faithfully every one of Harvard's servants is devoted to her interests.