The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-03-03

zens from other states and countries the sole
difference being in the size of the fees, and
this is so slight as to deter no one who really
desires to attend. The expenses, indeed, at
the most, are hardly more than nominal, for q
nonresident has to pay but trile over a hun
dred dollars for a complete college course, and
then can go through the law or medical course
for forty dollars additional; and this is a half
more than resident is asked. With fees as
low as these there is not often occasion TO an
swer question like that which is reported to
have been put to one of the officers recently
by man who wrote to know if the twenty
five dollars admission and twenty dollars year
afterwards included board and lodging.
There are four distinct departments in the
University-the Academic, the Medical, the
Law and the Polytechnic. Each of these has
it's own faculty and the instruction is for the
most part given in separate buildings. There
are forty instructors in the various departments
and of this number there are not a few who
are celebrated in educational literary and sci
entific circles At the head is President An
gell, who formerly occupied a similar position
in the University of Vermont, and is widely
known as a profound and versatile scholar,
graceful and ready writer and an eloquent and
effective speaker. With his ripe learning he
combines rare executive abilities and wonder
full tact in the management of affairs. 1t
would be well nigh impossible to find man
better fitted for the place he occupies. Then
there are Professor Frieze in the chair of Lat
in the author of extensive commentaries on
Virgil and other classics; Olney, whose mathe-
matical textbooks are used all over the land;
XUot ba OH in
in charge of one of the parties sent out by our
general government to observe the transit OF
Venus; Adams, whose recent work on Democ-
racy and Monarchy in France is attracting so
much attention; Campbell Walker and Cooley,
judges of the supreme bench in this state, the
latter the author of standard work on Con-
stitutional Limitations; Ford and Palmer,
known the country through as teaehers and
writers medical topics; and others scarcely
less noted in their respective branches as au-
thors and instructors. But it is not simply of
its present faculty that the University has rea-
son to be proud. The roll of its former in
structors includes names which have long been
famous-Fasquelle in French, Boise in Greek,
White, now President of Cornell, Brdnnow in
Astronomy, Wood in Engineering, Gum in
tnguished list of teachers.
The Academic department has four regular
and full courses of four years each-the CLASH
cal, the Scientific, the Latin and Scientific, and
the Greek and Scientific, the title of each be-
ing explanatory of its scope. Thus there Is
considerable opportunity for choice afforded
the student who contempates college course.
He may pursue the curriculum known as the
classical, which is substantially the same in
all our respectable colleges; he may substitute
the modern for the ancient languages and as
sociate certain scientific branches with them;
+ he may take a course which is q kind of
cross between the two, having either Latin or
Greek as he chooses and the leading scientific
studies In the Polytechnic department there
are excellent facilities for studying civil or
mining engineering, analytical chemistry, ,phar-
macy, botany, zoology and other branches usu-
ally taught in such schools. The instruction in
the law department IS given mainly by lectures,
but is supplemented by frequent class exami-
nations, moot courts and the like. The Medi-
cal department is conducted on essentially the
same plan as most OF our American medical
colleges and yet differs in some particulars,
such, for instance, as the extension of the lec-
| four or fiye and the examination of candidates
| for admission, plan which is believed to be
| practiced nowhere else. In pursuing any of
| these courses, the student has abundant assis-
tance from large and increasing libraries, both
| general and special, fine museums and exten
| sive collections of elaborate and costly appara-
| tus. The buildings are numerous and well
| adapted to the wants of the institution. The
| new hall, which is used at commencements, ly-
ceum lectures and whenever general meetings
of the students are held, will seat three thou
sand people without crowding.
1t is gratifying to be able to add to this brief
description of the University that its advan-
tages are widely appreciated by students as is
demonstrated by the great numbers who con-
stantly throng its spacious halls and laborato-
ries and lecture rooms. This year there are
| over eleven hundred and ninety in actual at
| tendance, and late comers will doubtless make
! this fully up to twelve hundred Not quite
| half are from Michigan and the rest come from
| the four quarters of the world. Europe, Asia
and Africa all send representatives, for stu
| dents are here from Natal, Liberia, Russia, Ja-
| pan, Denmark and the Sandwich Islands.
| Thirty-three of our states and territories have
|
| is largely represented. New England has fur
nished thirty -four, each state having contrbu-
| ed to the number.
| With such host as this, it is not surprising
| that the revenue from the fees, Insignificant
| though they are, is something considerable ev'
| cry year. Thus, the salaries of the instructors
| in the Law and Medical Departments and in
| the Chemical Laboratory are more than paid
| b, the receipts from the students in these
courses, so that, given the buildings and appa-
ratus for working these schools run themselves.
| In the Academic Department, however, the
case is different. There it is impossible for one
| professor TO teach three or four hundred at
| time, but the classes must be cut up into small
| divisions, each under separate instructor; and
thus the expenses are vastly increased. But at
the very post, the state does not have to pay
much for the support Of the University, and it
spends no money which brings it a better re-
turn in various ways than that which it lays
| out here.
One regularity about this university is the
admission of women to every department on
the same terms as men. of course this can on
| ly be regarded as an experiment, for it has nos
been tested a sufficiently long time to warrant
positive conclusions on many points; but II the
experience of the future is as satisfactory as
that of the past appears to be, the trial will re-
suit in perfect demonstration of the practical
bility and desirableness of co-education OF the
sexes. There has been none of the trouble pre-
dicted by the opponents of the plan in or out of
the class rooms on account of the presence Of
the women, whose demeanor has been almost
without exception such as to excite respect
They come to get an education, and they apply
themselves to their work in most studious
and business-like manner, asking only a fai
chance and seeking no favor on account oh
their sex. In every department. they take rank
fully equal to that of the men and often excel
them-but this has so uniformly been the case
in all mixed schools of low or high degree that
it has ceased to excite particular comment
The main question now with regard TO the
higher education of women is physiological
whether or not they can, at the time OF life at
which most want to fit for and go to college,
perform the requisite amount of intellectual
| labor without serious and permanent physical