years was as follows, the figures in parentheses being for 1880-81: Vassar, preparatory department, 63 (69); collegiate, special, and art courses, 237 (215); Wellesley, 515 (372); Smith, 296 (254). The total attendance of women at the schools specified was then, by these showings, 1,243 in 1880-'81 and 1,541 in 1883-84. On the whole, however, the increase in the number of women who compete for scholastic honors on the same basis as men is not rapid enough to threaten any disturbance of existing social, domestic, or business relations.

Since the date of my last report, women have been admitted to Middlebury College, Connecticut; to Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa.; and to the medical department of Columbian University, Washington, D. C. The Corcoran School of Science, one of the several schools under the control of this university, admits women as well as

men.

Bryn Mawr College, founded by the late Joseph W. Taylor, M. D., is to be opened in the fall of 1885. The institution is intended to meet the wants of advanced students. Thus the course in mathematics presupposes preliminary training through trigonometry; the courses in modern language, power to read fluently; and other courses, equal advancement.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announces in its catalogue for 1883-84 that

At the request of the Woman's Education Association of Boston and with its generous cooperation, special laboratories for the instruction of women were provided in 1876, the design being to afford facilities for the study of chemical analysis, industrial chemistry, mineralogy, and biology. Through the changes made during the past year, these and better opportunities for the higher education of women in scientific pursuits are now offered in the Kidder laboratories of chemistry and in the physical, biological, and other laboratories; and the Margaret Cheney memorial reading room has been opened for the use of young women who may be students in the school. The names of 11 female students appear on its register, and the names of 25 on the register of the Lowell School of Practical Design, which is under the corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology but supported by the Lowell Institute. Two new enterprises having for their object the higher education of women have been announced since the beginning of the year. The Methodist denomination purposes the establishment of a Methodist female seminary of high grade in Baltimore, and funds have been pledged and plans matured for the establishment of a college for women in the city of New York, a practical outcome of the agitation with reference to the admission of women to Columbia College. In 1883, 6 women passed the examinations for admission to the classes and collegiate course arranged for women under the auspices of the college, and 3 presented themselves this year. Harvard Annex reports 50 students the present year and $70,000 subscribed toward the fund of $100,000 necessary to insure its incorporation. The success achieved by certain of the graduates of Harvard Annex in work of a high order is one of the most encouraging facts in connection with the higher education of women.

At the present there seems to be more need of increased funds and resources for the existing institutions of the class under consideration than of new institutions. No record of the agencies for promoting the higher education of women would be complete without reference to the societies that have this object in view.

HARVARD EXAMINATIONS FOR WOMEN.

The Woman's Education Association has been actively engaged in the work for 12 years. One of the first measures proposed by it was the Harvard examinations for women, with reference to which the association submits the following in the report for 1884:

On account of the lessening number of candidates, never so large as in 1879, your committee had been gradually approaching a conviction that the experiment of the Harvard examinations for women had been fairly tried and that other agencies were now doing the work proposed. The answers to the questions sent out by the committee strengthened this conviction, and led them in December, 1882, to report to the

association that "in the judgment of the committee the time has now come when the subject of discontinuing the examinations should be brought before the association, The committee are unanimously of the opinion that, while those girls preparing to take the first half of the examination in 1883 and the second half in 1884 should by no means be disappointed, it will be best to hold no examination later than 1884.

"The reasons for this conclusion are these: There are now many opportunities for the higher education of girls which did not exist when we asked Harvard University to give these examinations: Smith College, Wellesley College, Boston University, and the course of collegiate study at Cambridge-the Annex-have all been opened since that time in our State, while at Vassar and Cornell and at Michigan State University an increasing number of girls take advantage of the opportunities provided for them. It is evident that parents and teachers prefer that girls shall be prepared for colleges where studies may be continued rather than that they shall be prepared for an examination which, although valuable as a test of thoroughness, opens no new opportunities.

"The increase of girls' colleges has raised the standard of education for girls in the high schools. In most of the large towns the high schools have always prepared a few boys for colleges, and they give now the same opportunities to the girls. By this means, a stimulus has been given to the higher education of girls throughout New England. All the girls of the high schools became familiar with a higher standard of education and that presented by the Harvard examinations is less needed.

"It is evident that this system of examinations has not taken root among us, and that it is now rendered unnecessary by the establishment of the girls' colleges, which have rapidly gained in public favor. It is certain, however, that the examinations have done much to promote an interest in the higher education of women, and have thus furthered the end for which they were established."

The association accepted this report and appointed the committee on the examinations a special committee to communicate to the dean of the college faculty that, in the judgment of the association, the general interest in the examinations would not justify our support of them after 1884.

The New York committee objected to this action and petitioned the faculty to continne the examinations after 1884 and to advertise them.

The Cincinnati committee joined the New York committee, while the Philadelphia ladies resolved to join in the action of the committee of the association, who, however, on account of the remonstrance of the New York committee and other important considerations, voted "to inform the association that they might need a longer time than that at first proposed for terminating their connection with the examinatious."

In closing the report for 1883, the committee would add that, since the extended advertisement of the examinations by means of these questions has not resulted in any increase in the number of candidates, they will not probably ask for a postponement of the time at first proposed for closing our connection with the examinations, i. c., the summer of 1884.

A full consideration of the influence of the examinations and of their failure to excite a permanent interest in our community will belong to the time when the committee shall have finished their work; but they do not wish to postpone until then all expression of gratitude for the fidelity, patience, and kindness with which the members of the university concerned in the experiment have performed their part of the work.

ASSOCIATIONS DEVOTED TO THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN.

The Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women in New York was organized in 1882. Its avowed object is to secure the admission of women to Columbia College. It also endeavors to raise the standard of instruction in existing schools for girls.

The Association of Collegiate Alumnæ is giving special attention to the subject of physical education for women. A circular of inquiry was prepared and issued by them for the purpose of ascertaining the effect of college education upon the health of women students. After 462 of the circulars had been answered the committee published a report stating that the members fully believe that a college education is physically beneficial and "that college statistics show an average of health among women students higher than among women at large; but they also realize that the physical status of American women of the educated class is painfully low, and they believe that the colleges ought to be among the first to take measures against this dangerous deterioration of physique." The report also gave a schedule showing how fragmentary had been the work done in this direction by the colleges represented in

the association, and added a series of suggestions addressed first to parents, secondly to governing bodies of institutions which grant degrees to women, and thirdly to women students.

This was not the extent of the results effected. The permanent value of the investigation has been publicly recognized. The Massachusetts State board of statistics, considering the research important to the public welfare, has made a voluntary proposition through its chairman to employ the time of six clerks for three months to the end of collating and arranging these statistics in the best possible form.

In 1883 the Western Association of Collegiate Alumnæ was founded and has already entered upon practical work in several important directions.

The Massachusetts Society for the University Education of Women continues its excellent work of giving encouragement, sympathy, and direct pecuniary help to women who, against great obstacles, are seeking to make use of opportunities for advanced study. One of the most important features of its work is the Loan Library, which secures the use of text books to such students as need help in this way. The society lends its hearty coöperation to measures for improving the living conditions of women students and for promoting their physical training.

COEDUCATION.

The action of the faculty of Adelbert College of Western Reserve University with reference to the continued admission of women excited much feeling, but happily has not resulted to the disadvantage of the women.

At a meeting of the faculty held June 9, 1884, "it was voted that the trustees be informed that the faculty are of the opinion that after the autumn examinations of 1886 young women should not be admitted to coeducation in this college."

This vote was approved by all the members of the faculty except the president, who was absent from the meeting and did not know that any such action was contemplated. This minute was transmitted to the board of trustees at their meeting, June 18. The board appointed a committee to examine the question and directed that they report to the board at a special meeting to be held November 7. This committee, consisting of Hon. W. I. Chamberlain, Mr. Joseph Perkins, Hon. S. E. Williamson, Mr. Samuel Andrews, Mr. L. E. Holden, Mr. W. H. Doan, and Rev. Carroll Cutler, proceeded to seek information from a very large number of those presidents and professors of colleges and other high schools of learning who had had experience in the joint education of men and women, and from a considerable number of those who had had no experience, but who were thought best able to present the arguments against it.

The committee met first on September 15 to consider the subject and compare the testimony which they had received, and again on November 6 to determine on a report to be made to the board. The majority of the committee, consisting of Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Perkins, Mr. Doan, and Mr. Cutler, agreed to a report concluding as follows: "In view of such and such like facts and opinions, your committee beg leave to recommend that the action urged by the faculty, viz, To refuse, after the autumn examinations of 1886, to admit young women to coeducation in Adelbert College,' be not adopted by this board of trustees." Mr. Williamson and Mr. Andrews presented a minority report urging that no women be hereafter admitted to Adelbert College. Mr. Holden was absent, but concurred in the views of the majority. At the meeting of the board of trustees on November 7 the recommendation of the majority report was adopted by the board, after a long and thorough discussion of the entire subject, by a vote of 12 ayes to 6 noes, 1 member not voting.

At this meeting a paper was submitted by the president of the faculty, Carroll Cutler, containing an exhaustive review of the results of coeducation in the colleges in which it has had adequate trial, as also a candid statement of the arguments advanced against the system. In conclusion Mr. Cutler says:

Joint education of men and women in the higher studies has now been tried in a sufficient number and variety of colleges and for a sufficient length of time to prove

that no special difficulties and evils grow out of it and that it does away with the greatest difficulties and evils of the old monastic system. It makes college life and society more nearly human, instead of "only half human." The half human ever verges first and last towards the bestial, whether in armies, on shipboard, in miners' camps, or in colleges, monasteries, and nunneries. It would be wise to humanize the colleges still more, rather than to begin the process of dehumanizing them; better to follow the example of the churches, and get in the fathers and mothers as well as the brothers and sisters. This we do to some extent, and to our great benefit too, when cultivated ladies and gentlemen, fathers and mothers, attend our popular courses of lectures. They bring a moral blessing with them and carry a mental one away. It is a good exchange for us; and well would it be for the college if it were oftener and more systematically made.

The situation of this college is specially favorable to the joint education of men and women. It is within reach of many cultivated and christian homes, in which both classes of students can live amid the best of influences. All the natural, social, and christian surroundings of the college harmonize with it and help it. All the schools, except one or two, from which we can hope to receive pupils are frequented by boys and girls alike. Our own two academies are mixed schools and prepare boys and girls for college. Our medical college and the other medical colleges of the city admit women to all their instructions, examinations, and degrees. All experience west of the Alleghany Mountains shows that this true method of nature is also the fitting thing in the view of the people. There is scarcely a college in all this central and western region which can be called in any sense prosperous which does not adopt it. Many even of those colleges which were founded and carried on for many years on the monastic principle have adopted it partly in self defence, because they saw that it was demanded and they would lose patronage without it. This college cannot prosper by discarding and antagonizing the advanced and advancing thought and feeling of the world about it, by falling back upon medieval notions and methods.

It seems to be hoped by some that, if women could only be turned out from this college or put off with the heel-taps and broken meats of knowledge after the men have been intellectually dined, some one will have pity on them and come to the rescue with an endowment of a college for them. To place a separate college for women here in as good condition as this college now is, for their education in the same classes with men, would require at least $800,000; and then with a capital of $1,600,000 we should be doing the same work over twice, and, on account of the evil and mistaken monastic system on both sides, be getting out of it results, for men and women both, which would be far inferior both intellectually and morally. To add $400,000 to the funds of this college as it now is would, if wisely managed, more than double the advantages which both parties would then have in courses, instructors, apparatus, and books, and, besides, give a far higher, more natural and human tone intellectually and morally to all our work. A policy of separation is poor financial economy and morally poorer still.

I am of the opinion that women ought, hereafter as heretofore, to be admitted to this college and to have every privilege it can afford

(1) Because all the reasons assigned for closing the doors to women are either such as are practically irrelevant to the subject or such as every touch of experience proves to be groundless.

(2) Because their presence elevates the scholarship.

(3) Because it elevates the moral tone of college life, improves the order, and tends

to banish coarseness and rudeness.

(4) Because, while it is true that there are comparatively few women who desire a full college education, those few ought to be cheerfully and cordially encouraged in it and helped to it by all who are interested in the progress of God's kingdom, since the fields of labor now opened to them and forced upon them are so important, so fruitful, and need such high qualifications.

(5) Because this college was founded especially for Christ and His church, and ought to do all it can, and in all the ways which Providence opens as the times advance, to meet the needs of the church and serve the Head of the church.

(6) Because our two academies are open to girls as well as boys, to their great advantage, and our medical college also admits women. To refuse them the advantages of the college would be causelessly to destroy the harmony of the system and would cast a reflection both upon the academies and the medical college.

(7) Because the exclusion of women will disaffect and repel from the college all those high schools, academies, and preparatory schools, of every name, which teach and prepare for the college courses both boys and girls. We cast a reflection upon their system, and no argument cau ever disabuse their minds of an idea which our public action and our daily practice enforce upon them. We cannot afford to say to all these schools in Ohio and elsewhere that we consider one-third or one-half of their pupils unfit candidates for the privileges of this college, however high their character or scholarship. We cannot make this invidious distinction without throwing cold water

on the interest and enthusiasm of those pupils who might otherwise come to us from these schools, and upon those teachers who have as great hopes of the one class of their pupils as of the other and as great interest in them.

(8) Because, if we exclude women, we thus make it so much less worth while for all these schools to hold up their courses to the studies and the standard of requirement for admission to college. We shall thus certainly destroy our connection and disorganize the system on which we must depend for prosperity. The people will not endure to see a public and offensive rejection of a considerable part of those who desire college education, and will inevitably say: "Henceforth we cut all connection with you. You go your way; we will go ours."

(9) Because the public can never be made to believe that a college with so large an endowment and so small an attendance can have any valid justification for thus totally and gratuitously warning off one-half the human race. They will laugh such a transaction to scorn. This public, on which the college is dependent for success, has a strong sense of justice and a long memory for injustice.

(10) Because a long and very varied experience of many colleges and other institutions of every grade testifies on every hand that the results of the joint education of men and women are good, and only good, for both men and women.

(11) Because economy requires it.

(12) Because the policy of the college as a public trust for the public good ought to be to broaden its sympathies and take hold of ever wider circles of public sympathy, in order that it may do an ever increasing amount of good.

(13) Because the honor of our founders and donors will be compromised by any narrowing policy. They live in the honor and reverence of men in proportion as the college draws toward it all classes of the people by its work for their good and its liberal principles.

(14) Because the college has burdens enough to bear already, some from the remote and some from the recent past. The shock it has already received from the mere proposal to do this unjust thing we are now met to consider, it will not soon recover from.

HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN ABROAD.

The most important provision for the higher education of women of which information has been received since the date of my last report has been made in Canada. The corporation of McGill University, Montreal, has had the subject under consideration since the establishment of the McGill Normal School in 1857. In 1870, when the university appealed to its friends for additional endowment, the Rev. Dr. Wilkes moved a resolution to the effect that the university should as early as possible extend its benefits to women. This resolution was unanimously adopted, but the means for carrying it into effect were not immediately forthcoming. In 1883 Principal Sir J. William Dawson, C. M. G., LL. D., visited Great Britain for the purpose of studying in detail the methods in operation in that country and reporting upon the same. On his return he found that 8 young women, who had passed as associates in arts, were prepared to proceed at least as far as the examinations for senior associate and were desirous that the university should aid them in their studies. The financial difficulty in the way of meeting this practical demand was removed by the gift of Hon. Donald A. Smith, who placed $50,000 at the disposal of the university, to be invested for the endowment of a college and classes for women. Under this endowment the classes have been commenced for women in the first and second years of the college course under special regulations. The course of study and the examinations are the same as for men, except that women are allowed to take German as equivalent to Greek. Although no actual provision has been made for the third and fourth years as yet, it is understood that the present students, about 15 in number, are to proceed to graduation.

The following universities in Canada admit women to lectures in the same classes as men: Victoria, at Coburg; Queen's, at Kingston; Dalhousie, at Halifax; and University College, at Toronto. The last named was opened to women for the first time in 1884, and the action was regarded as a signal triumph for the cause of women's education, as the college is a state institution and the applications of the women had to be dealt with as a matter of public policy. It is noticeable that in Canada,

'Information reaches the Bureau that this gentleman has added $50,000 to his original gift.