HARVARD DURING 1881.

At the meeting on Wednesday of the overseers of Harvard College the annual reports of the president and treasurer, which have just been issued in pamphlet form, were presented. From them we gather the following facts:

About $40,000 a year are now paid out to scholarships, loans, and other pecuniary aids to poor students; of which considerable sums, about one-eighth, is paid to students of theology, somewhat more than one-seventh to bachelors of arts or science who are pursuing studies not professional, and about five-sevenths to candidates for the degree of bachelor of arts. Of the money paid to undergraduates in arts, two-thirds are returned to the college in tuition fees; but the other two departments receive but a small return in this way.

On account of the resignation of Dr. Peabody a change had to be effected in the divine services. Nine ministers, belonging to four different denominations, will, accordingly, conduct prayers, each for about a month during the current year. After some experiments the two ministers, members of the board of overseers - Rev. Drs. Edward E. Hale and Phillips Brooks - who conducted prayers during October and November, settled upon an interesting order of service, in which the daily responsive reading of a psalm was introduced.

Early in the year 1880-1, a circular was sent to the parents or guardians of the 828 undergraduates, asking if they held daily prayers in their households. The number of replies received was 741, of which 211, or two-sevenths, answered yes, and 530, or five-sevenths, answered no.

Experience during a period of ten years with the elective system, shows that the system does not tend to bring about the extinction of the traditional studies called liberal. The scientific turn of mind is comparatively rare among the young men who enter the college, a large majority of the students preferring languages, metaphysics, history, and political science, to mathematics, physics, zoology, and botany. Every extension of the system has been a gain to the individual student, to the college, and to every interest of education and learning; and the time is not far distant when the few subjects still prescribed for all students will in their turn become elective.

The deficit for 1880-81, amounting to $34,469.19, is the largest which the college has ever incurred, and has forced the corporation to consider anxiously the measures necessary to prevent the recurrence of such a reduction of capital. After deducting from the deficit all those expenses of the year which can properly be called extraordinary, there remains an excess over receipts to the amount of, at least, $15,000. Since the beginning of the year a gift of $100,000 from the estate of the late Eben Wright has been received for carrying on the library. The corporation will, this year, cut off certain expenses in the library of recent origin, and charge their just proportion of various expenses to the several schools; and next year will, in addition, charge special fees for supplies to all students who work in laboratories, and abolish a few unimportant courses of instruction, the loss of which, they believe, will not be seriously felt. They see some reason to believe, moreover, that the number of students will next year increase. It will, however, be impossible to avoid a large deficit for the current year.

The most important question before the overseers was that of admitting women to the medical school. An individual desiring to contribute asked the president and fellows whether a fund for the medical education of women would be accepted and used as designed. After a long discussion it was voted to accept a fund, the income of which shall ultimately be used for the medical education of women. The following appointments were confirmed: Gen. Francis A. Walker, university lecturer on the resources of the United States; Alexander McKenzie, D. D., lecturer on biblical theology; G. Stanley Hall, lecturer on pedagogy. It was voted to concur with the president and fellows in their vote authorizing the academic council to accept a year of satisfactory study in Europe in lieu of such a year passed in residence here.