The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-25

The work Of the students in the grad uate department has shown an advance in quality and originality. An impor- tant stimulus has been furnished to the scientific side of that work, and indeed to the whole body of scientific students and instructors in the university, by the remarkable course given by Profes- sor J. J. Thomson. of Cambridge, Eng land, on Recent Developments of Our Ideas of Electricity. This was the first of the courses of lectures on the large Silliman fOundation; and it is a matter of great reorganization that We have been able at the very outset to fix such high standard of originality and use fulness.
 The general health of the university during the past year has been conspicu- ously good. Only those who are charged with the responsibility of watching over student body can ap- preciate the importance of this side of our administrative work. Among the causes which have contributed to this end may be mentioned the increased watchfulness both of the university au- thorities and of the New Haven Water company concerning the conditions af- fecting water supply, the increased care given by the treasurer and his assist ants to the condition of the university buildings.
 In its material equipment, the univer- sity has made gratifying progress. The large addition to the Kent Laboratory of the academic department was made ready for use early in the winter Woolsey Hall, with its memorial en- trance, the last and greatest of the Bi- centennial buildings, is at length com pleted, and to the audience assembled to hear this address the building speaks for itself. Byers Hall is also ready for occupancy, The Lampson Lyceum will be finished before the close of the next academic year. This will provide &C., commodation for the dean and bursar of the college, for most of its instruc- tion in modern languages, and for the meetings of its faculty, besides furnish ing the large lecture room contemplated in the terms of the bequest. Kirtland Hall, the new building for instruction in mineralogy in the Sheffieul Scientific school, is little rarther under way than Lampson; while the first of the Vanderbilt dormitories in the Sheffield Scientific school is sufficiently advanced to give an indication of it's architectural beauty and convenience.
 Recent gifts worthy of special men, tion are an addition of fifty thousand dollars to the endowment of the Forest school, furnished by the Plnchot family, with the same unostentatious generosi- ty which has characterized their previ- ous contributions; a promise of five successive annual gifts to income of five thousand dollars each, in connec- tion with the establishment and the de- ve1opment of the new mining courses from MT. John Hays Hammond; and a bequest which will ultimately be of considerable importance from William Lawrence McLane, of the class of 1869, who makes Yale university his residua- ry legatee.
 Special acknowledgment should be made to the trustees and class agents of the Yale Alumni fund, who are each year making gift of ten thousand dol lars to the income of the university, and at the same time adding a sum consid erably greater than this to the principal which they hold in their charge. The example set by the class of 1877, in sig nalizing their twenty-fifth anniversary by large contribution to the principal of this fund, has been not only emula- ted but surpassed by the class of 1878.