The Portland daily press., 1878-07-13
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF In.
sVRUCTTDN.


The crowd attendant on the meetings of the
Institute yesterday was as large as upon previ'
GUS days, aud the interest in the session was
maintained even to the closing reunion in the
Fabyan paror last evening An idea of the
interest the meeting has excited among educa-
tors may hs gathered from the fact that two
thousand membership tickets have been sold
by the secretary during the session. Nor has
the time been devoted altogether to pleasure,
the speakers always having large and appreci-
atng audiences.
At the session yesterday, the following list OF
officers were elected for the ensuing year:
President-Isaac N. Carleton, New Britain,
Conn.
Vice Presidents-S S.Greene, Providence, r.
l.; Thomas ". Bicknell, Boston, Mass; G. G.
Rounds, Pennington, Me-: A. P, Stone.
Mass; j. 81. Hanson, Waterville, Me-; W. j.
Corthell, Calais, Me-; G. T. Fletcher, Castine,
Me-, and fifty others.
Secretary-Henry E. Sawyer, New Britain,
Conn.
Assistant Secretary-G. A. Littefeld, Nal.
den, Mass.
Treasurer-George A. Walton, West6eld,
Mass
Councillors M. G. Daniel. Boston, Mass.
John Kneeland, Boston, Mass; e. Rageles,
Uus
Horace M. Willard Saxton's River, VT; w.
Q. Fletcher, Rockland, Me-, ~ Manchester,
providence, r. L.; A. P. Marble, Worcester
Mass; b. f: Tweed, Boston Mass; Augustus
Cambridge, Mass; J. Q. Greenough, Proyi.
dence, r. I.
RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED.
The Committee on Resolutions reported the
following, which were adopted:
hat A..
lagest educational meeting ever held in this
country, and the largest ever held by this Insti-
tute, as eminently successful and gratifying
both from the study of nature, which it has
permitted, with healthful and sexhilarating
recreation, and for the satisfactory character
of its literary and practical exercises in this
hall.
A vote of thanks was also given 10 the es-
sayists.
Resolutions were then passed favoting the
metric system and recommending action By the
various States to encourage its teaching in the
schools; reaffirming confidence in the policy of
the regulation of education by the State, and
calling upon Congress to aid the Bureau of
Education IN its work, recommending for this
purpose the net proceeds of the public lands,
any funds received from the railroads, aided by
land grants, and also the moneys accumulated
IN the United States Treasury from the admin
lstration OF the Patent Office and resolving
that the American Institute of Instruction
uuiuC WIN tuo u6uUoES Vi tn6 American fQllO.
logical Association and others in the memorial
to Congress, asking that commission of in
qu1ry be appointed to exami ne and report how
tar reform 10 English spelling Is desirable,
and what changes in photography, il any, may
be wisely introduced into the public documents
Also that committee of three be appointed to
report at the next meeting of the institute,
what steps should be taken by this association
to aid in the simplifcation of the English
spelling.
The papers read were of great interest and of
the highest value. Hon. E. E. White of Indi-
ana, opening the session with well written
essay upon the American system of teaching,
which was afterwards discussed by Dr. M. A.
Newell of Maryland, and DR.. John Hancock
of Ohio. The essay and discussion were very
general, taking up most of the more salient ad-
vantages ard faults in our common school sys-
tenn, which were praised and condemned with
unusual justice and discrimination.
Prof E. A. Dolbear of Tufts College, who
has made special study of telephone
science, and whose monographs on the subject
have been so widely read, gave very clear and
therefore interesting exhibition of the tele-
phone, showing, with the assistance of Mr..
Hooper at the Fabyan cottage, the wonderful
capacities of the instruments of different in
ventors, the assistant, singing and talking SO as
to be heard distinctly by the thousand persons
gathered in the paIlor. Prof. Dolbear said
that the ordinary 'lovers telegraph" which
has been hawked about the streets, might be
used for ordinary conversation, under favorable
circumstances, at a distance of half mile, and
also showed telephone constructed by himself
from an old peach can, which had transmitted
audible vibrations through length of fifteen
miles of wire. The session closed with re-
union last evening