THE PRESIDENT'S REPORT.

The President's report for 1895-96 to the Board of Overseers, with the reports of the various departments and the Treasurer of the University was published yesterday. After mentioning the deaths and services to the University of Martin Brimmer, Josiah Dwight Whitney, Francis James Child, Daniel Denison Slade, and Eliot Folger Rogers, the President directs his attention to the Graduate School. Since 1871, when the Graduate School was founded, the degrees of Ph. D. and S. D. have been conferred upon graduates of other universities only after a residence at Harvard of two and three years respectively. On March 2, 1896, the Corporation voted that these degrees might hereafter be conferred after a residence at Harvard of one year, as was already the case in regard to the degree of A. M.

On Dec. 30, 1895, the Corporation abolished the practice of remitting fees to assistants and increased the salaries of assistants. An important vote was adopted on March 2, 1896, to the effect that the receipts and expenditures of Harvard College, the Lawrence Scientific School and the Graduate School be combined in one account. No department will, however, be fostered at the expense of another.

The President declares that the management of sports at Harvard has been for some years "unintelligent, and for that reason unsuccessful." The fundamental defect has been that "coaches of limited experience, who may be either unobservant or obtuse, can override on the spot the advice of the trainer and physicians." "The remedies are the subordination of coaches to an expert in training or to a medical adviser, and the general adoption of more reasonable views about al training."

During the past few years the surpluses which the Law School has enjoyed have been devoted to the library, which now contains 38,000 volumes and 4,300 pamphlets.

On account of the new requirement of a degree for entrance to the Law School, the number of students has slightly decreased this year. The Law School is now a graduate department.

The Medical School will also have a like standing after the year 1900, making four graduate departments in the University. The need of one or two furnished dormitories and a dining hall for the use of the medical students is again urged.

The acquisitions to the University Library during the past year numbered 17,677 volumes. Of late years the proportion of American books bought for the Library has increased in comparison with the proportions of English and German books.

The Ware collection of glass flowers in the University Museum continues to increase, but, on account of the death of Leopold Blaschka, the rate of production has greatly lessened. However, the completion of the collection is now in sight.

A contract with the Metropolitan Park Commission has secured for Harvard College a reservation for scientific purposes in the top of Blue Hill. The meteorological work begun here in 1885 by Mr. H. E. Rotch and since then carried on at his expense, will be continued.

Fifty years ago next September Louis Agassiz was made a professor of Harvard. The Museum founded by him in 1859 has since developed into an establishment which has cost over a million of dollars, and which has an invested endowment of nearly $600,000. However, the building which he planned is not yet finished and, although his son and successor as Director of the Museum has aided the Museum financially, the poverty of the establishment is hardly concealed. The later generations who are reaping the benefit of Agassiz's great inspiration should hasten the completion of the Museum.

At Radcliffe the number of students in 1895-96 showed a gain of 74 over the previous year. Thirty-one students received a degree last June, of which only eight took the plain degree without distinction. The College needs several substantial buildings, adapted to their uses.

During the past year the unsightly seats on Holmes Field have been removed and the yard, in which discarded boards, stones, etc., were deposited, was done away with. These improvements have very much enhanced the value of property in that vicinity.

The increase in the number of students who come here for a single year necessitates the building of a dormitory, with furnished rooms. It is really a great hardship for a man, who intends to stay here but nine months, to be compelled to furnish a room. A new dining hall similar to the Foxcroft Club is also a much needed addition to the University.

The invested funds of the University now amount to $8,526,813.67, an increase of $5,120,160.24 in twenty years. The general fall in the rate of interest during the past year has embarrassed many departments of the University which depend upon the income of permanent funds. During the year 1895 96 the amount of gifts and bequests to the University was $243,791.05. "During the same period at least five American universities, all situated outside of New England, received much larger additions to their endowments. If the primacy of Harvard University among American institutions of education is to be maintained, it must not be surpassed by any other in material resources. The Corporation could use the income of additional endowment to the amount of $10,000,000.00 for the satisfaction of none but well-known and urgent wants."

The Report of Dean Briggs.In the annual report of the Dean, considerable attention is given to the discussion of the struggle which has been made to suppress dishonesty in written work. He recites the attempt made to stop such dishonesty two years ago and the failure of that attempt. Dean Briggs thinks that the reason for this state of College morals is found in the double standard,-a shifting for the convenience of the moment, from the character of a responsible man to the character of an irresponsible boy. "The administrative officers," says he, "accept without question a student's word: they assume that he is a gentleman and that a gentleman does not lie; if, as happens now and then, he is not a gentleman and does lie, they had rather, nevertheless, be fooled sometimes than be suspicious always (and be fooled quite as often). Frankly treated, the student is usually frank himself; our undergraduates are, in general, excellent follows to deal with: yet so much is done for then, so many opportunities are lavished on them, that the more thoughtless fail to see the relation of their rights to other people's, and, in the self-importance of early manhood, forget that the world is not for them alone. Students of this kind need delicate handling. They jealously demand to be treated as men, take advantage of the instructors who treat them so, and excuse themselves on the ground that, after all, they are only boys."

Continuing, Dean Briggs shows just why the recent vote of the Faculty in regard to posting names for dishonesty in written work was passed, and then concludes his remarks on this subject as follows: "My hope is that self-respect or fear will make the offence almost impossible; for whoever cheats will know that he cheats, and will cheat with his eyes open to the result of detection: and my ultimate hope is a higher right for Harvard College to maintain that she stands for truth."