HARVARD UNIVERSITY,

Cambridge, November 20th, 1891.

Dear Brush,-

Can you lend me a Treasurer's Report of Yale Uni-
versity for 1832? I am making up some rough statistics of the
gross annual expenditures of five universities for use in a course
of lectures at the Lowell Institute. Treasurer Farnum sent me
the Yale Reports for 1879 to 1890, inclusive; but the file lacks
the Report for 1832, and he wrote me that he could not find a
copy. I feel sure a systematic person like yourself preserves
them. I will promptly return it. I was so very imprudent many
months ago as to engage to give six lectures at the Lowell In-
stitute on the "Recent Changes and Tendencies in Education."
I now find it a hard job in connection with my regular duties.
Nevertheless, I suppose it will be done four weeks from last
night.

I hope that your wife and daughters are well, and hope that you
are enjoying, as you ought, the growth of the Scientific School.

Professor George J. Brush.

Harvard University,

Cambridge, November 16th, 1893.

Dear Brush,-

Our entrance examinations are in charge of a Committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which Faculty has charge both of the College and the Scientific School. The Committee has nine members, representing the different departments in which examinations are held; and so far as the Scientific School demands the same subjects for admission which the College demands, the examinations for the two departments are identical. As this Committee has to meet twice at least during the summer vacation, in the week after Commencement, each member is paid $25. for his services. The Committee decides on the readers of the answer-papers, and these readers are all paid by the hour. We put one assistant professor in charge of the examinations; but this gentleman does a good deal of administrative work throughout the year, and for his administrative work, including the charge of the admission examinations, he receives an extra compensation of $500.

The main difficulty in the conduct of our examinations is the difficulty of keeping the question-papers reasonable and tolerably steady in their quality. I find it not safe to leave the preparation of the papers in any department to a single man,--they must be criticised by several persons.

I wish we could have a joint Committee of Harvard and Yale men to conduct examinations for both institutions. I believe that a large increase in the influence of both universities would result from such a combination.

Will you tell me briefly what you think of your graduate, Davenport, who now makes guns and armor-plate at the Bethlehem Works? I have met him two or three

North-East Harbor, Me.,

August 11, 1896.

Dear Brush:

I have received through Professor Hollis, of our Scientific School, a copy of the Resolutions and Recommendations adopted by the Governing Board of the Sheffield Scientific School, June, 1896. I am glad that the Sheffield School is of the opinion expressed in the first paragraph of these resolutions. That was the object of the Conference from which the Sheffield School has now withdrawn. The Lawrence Scientific School has for some years past used precisely the same admission papers which Harvard College used, although, of course, it did not use so many papers, because the subjects for admission to the Scientific School were fewer than those to the College. The purpose expressed in the last paragraph, "In order to accomplish, etc." is also the purpose of the Institute of Technology.

To carry out that purpose, it seems to me a necessary preliminary that the scientific schools shall agree to put their examinations on a level with the college admission examinations, although the subjects might be different. I have never ventured to ask that the Lawrence Scientific School might be represented on that Commission, because its examination for admission was much lower than the ordinary standard for college admission examinations. The same is true for the Sheffield admission examinations and those of the Institute of Technology. The main object of this note is to ask whether the Sheffield School would join the Lawrence Scientific School in putting its admission examinations on a level with those of the college. That is a thing which I am very anxious to accomplish at Cambridge; but I have always been met by the argument that it would not do for a single scientific School to act alone in that matter; that it would be ruinous

for the Scientific School to put its admission examination very much above that of
the Sheffield Scientific School and that of the Institute of Technology. Am I
right in thinking that these resolutions of the Governing Board of the Sheffield
School open a prospect for combined action in the direction above indicated?

I hope that you and Mrs. Brush and your daughters are having a pleasant
and refreshing summer. Mrs. Eliot and I are enjoying Mount Desert as usual, but
we have had more anxieties than usual, consequent upon sicknesses among our
relations and friends.

Public affairs are disquieting, and I suppose that conditions of
business must affect our respective institutions somewhat unfavorably. The
Freshman class for next year in Harvard College will not be as large as last
year's class, but the Scientific School makes a small gain. On the whole, you
and I have abundant reason to be content with the improvement and growth of the
institutions of which we have had charge. That is a great satisfaction for us as
we get old.

Very truly yours,

Professor George J. Brush.

Harvard University,

Cambridge, January 2nd, 1899.

My dear Brush:

I sincerely hope that you are recovering favorably from
your attack of bronchitis; and in due time your friends will be glad
to hear that you have abandoned for a season New Haven and the New Eng-
land winter and spring. Have you ever been in Egypt? It is a very
easy journey and a very delightful one. You go by a North German Lloyd
Steamer from Naples, and there take another steamer to Alexandria; or
you may land at Genoa, and go by rail to Brindisi, whence steamers go
to Alexandria. To have a satisfactory trip up the Nile and back again,
you would need to leave New York by the 20th of January. I do not know
a more delightful journey, or one easier or more comfortable for a per-
son who has not recovered his natural strength. The mail boats on the
Nile are preferable to the tourist boats, because the number of passen-
gers is only twenty-four, against seventy to a hundred on the tourist
boats. The climate is delightful, the sights always interesting (al-
though you do not leave the deck of the boat), and the general mode of
life distinctly luxurious. There are two places up the Nile at either
of which you can stop a week or two with great pleasure - namely, Luxor
and Assouan. The hotels are good in both places; and a mild donkey
ride might agree with you very well. Of course, you would need Mrs.
Brush or a daughter; but then they would enjoy the journey very much,
unless they do not easily recover from sea-sickness. It pays to go to
the Second Cataract; but I should have felt rewarded for the journey to

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and from Egypt if I had never gone more than a day's journey from Cairo.
Cairo and its vicinity is astonishingly interesting. The advantage of
Egypt over California or our Southern states is that it affords a great
deal of interest and entertainment for the passing traveller, which is
not the case, so far as I know, with any warm climate on this continent.

My last news of you was that of December 21st. I hope you have
made great progress since then.

Professor George J. Brush.

Harvard University,

Cambridge, Mass., September 30, 1899.

Dear Brush,

Mrs. Eliot and I both would like very much to stay with you in New Haven at the time of the inauguration; but guided by Dr. George P. Fisher, we have accepted the invitation of President Hadley for October 18. Dr. Fisher had already invited Mrs. Eliot and me to stay with him; but after his return to New Haven, he found that Hadley wished to entertain us, and in accordance with Dr. Fisher's advice we have accepted Hadley's invitation.

You and I have both accumulated in the course of the last forty years a reasonable number of sheaves, and have much reason to be content. You seem to have got ahead of me in the matter of retiring for a permanent vacation. I have always supposed that I should die rather young, and, therefore, probably in harness. These expectations apparently will have to be modified. My present sensations on returning to work after twelve delightful weeks at Mount Desert make me think that I should enjoy a permanent vacation just as well as you.

Please give my cordial remembrances to Mrs. Brush and your daughters.

Professor George J. Brush.

Harvard University,

Cambridge, 13 March, 1902.

Dear Brush,-

I received in due course of mail your kind note of
February 23rd about Mrs. Eliot's sickness. She has now been in her
chamber since the 4th of January, most of the time confined to her bed.
It has been a period of great suffering, but the disease was not danger-
ous to life. She lost flesh and strength, and when, after a month of
severe pain, the worst pain ceased, she did not seem to rally from the
exhaustion which the pain had caused. Now, within two days she says
she is better, and the nurse and I agree with her; so we begin to hope
that she may be able to take a change of air before many weeks.

I judge by the hotel mark on your paper that you have prudently
retired to a warmer climate for a part of our winter. Mrs. Eliot and I
meant to go on a considerable journey to the West, but we have been
obliged to give up the whole of it. I hope Mrs. Brush and your daugh-
ters have been well all winter. I have managed to do some work since
the 25th of September, although very much upset by Mrs. Eliot's con-
dition. It was horrible to watch her great suffering.

Since last June our Medical School has got in fully two millions
and three-quarters of dollars to secure the execution of what I believe
to be a well-planned and wise scheme for future development. This ought
to be of considerable service to medical education throughout the United

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States. Our demand, this year enforced for the first time, for a degree
in arts or science at admission to the Medical School is going to lift
very much the whole School. The whole Faculty is delighted with the
great change in quality of the entering class this year.

As a side show, we have lately had a visit from Prince Henry of
Prussia. I believe his four hours in Cambridge pleased both him and us,
and that there was no foolish talking or undignified behavior on Cambridge
ground. The Prince himself seemed a simple and natural person of moder-
ate parts. He would have liked to see the great American industrial
establishments: what he had to see were official ceremonies and hos-
pitalities.

Hadley continues to win golden opinions in all directions. The
schoolmasters, in particular, think he is going to be sympathetic and
helpful in regard to their work. If I were the President of Yale, I
think I should give my very particular attention to Cornell University.
That is the institution most likely, in my opinion, to become a formid-
able competitor on the present natural watershed of Yale.

Sincerely yours,

Professor George J. Brush.

Harvard University

Cambridge 7 June 1902.

Dear Brush:

Mrs. Eliot and I were much interested by the announcement of
your daughter Eliza's marriage to Mr. Pirsson, and we hope most heartily
that it is a happy event for you and Mrs. Brush as well as for the young
people.

How have you been this year? Did you go on your usual winter excursion?
The Winter and Spring were bad for us because of Mrs. Eliot's very
painful sickness, but I am happy to say that she is now well nigh recovered,
and can enjoy life again. We took a bicycle ride together this morning, and
breakfasted at our son Samuel's, who lives a mile to the West of our house.

This has been a very interesting year at Harvard because of the big
Medical benefactions. We are trying to get the best possible plant for
teaching Medicine, including a large hospital on the adjoining lot. This
hospital, however, will be in charge of a separate body of trustees. It is
as interesting a job as any that I have been concerned with since 1869.

I have been glad to see that the Sheffield has been getting some new
gifts.

Please remember us kindly to Mrs. Brush and your daughters, and be-
lieve me, as ever,

Your friend,

Professor George J. Brush.