given were promptly tabulated as received; meanwhile such portions of the text as did not require consultation of the tabular matter were hastened. As now presented, it is believed that the statistics relating to public and private instruction of all grades and kinds in the United States will be found more thoroughly systematized and more fully analyzed than heretofore.

The statistics of State and Territorial systems previously published by the Office, somewhat remodelled and extended in my first Report, are now further modified, so as to render the tabulated statements shorter and more compact and the discussion thereof more plain and convenient. While the concrete facts are thus presented, the ratio-tables and other comparative statistics then begun have been correspondingly extended and re-arranged. The main lines, now as then, are to illustrate and define (1) the increase or decrease during the year of each item for each State; (2) the ratio which each item in each State bears to every item in the same State, thus enabling the educational status of each State to be compared with that of every other; (3) tabular summaries by geographical sections, thus enabling broader comparisons and generalizations to be instituted.

Instead of depending upon the kindness and taking the time of correspondents by asking them to supply these ratios and comparisons, I have had them calculated in this Office according to carefully considered rules; in short, the object has been to give the information itself instead of the materials therefor, and to present accurate and complete statistics on a uniform basis.

The Report for 1885-86 presented these features mainly for State systems; in the present volume the work of improvement on the lines referred to above has been continued and enlarged. For example, the most important difference in the method of presenting the statistics of city and town systems in the Reports for 1885-86 and 1886-87 consists in the introduction in the latter of a comparative table similar in purpose to those described in the preceding paragraphs respecting State systems. A short account of the modifications introduced in this part of this Report is not out of place here.

The statistics have been extended to those cities whose population is 4,000 or more. The census of 1880 made that number the dividing line between the urban and the rural population, and this standard has been adopted as the lowest limit of population of "cities" by this Bureau. Though only a single column has been added to the table of statistics, the value of the figures there shown is vastly increased by the deductions drawn from them in the comparative table that follows.

In the blanks sent out for 1885-86 superintendents were asked to state"the average number of scholars per teacher;" the "average cost per capita of pupils in average attendance, based upon cost of supervision and instruction," and upon "incidental and contingent expenses;" and the "tax for school purposes upon the total property,

assessed and estimated." All these questions are omitted in the inquiries for the 1886-87 Report. Instead, all these calculations and others of a similar nature are made in this Office, thus insuring uniform methods of computation.

Further, the population between the ages of 6 and 14 years has been determined in each case, and averages are made upon that basis, as well as upon the average attendance upon the schools. For purposes of comparison upon equal terms this is absolutely necessary, since the legal school age" is so variable as to make comparison impossible unless uniform bases were established.

The new tables show the percentage of "enrolment to population 6 to 14;" of "average daily attendance to population 6 to 14, and to enrolment;" the "average number of days that each person between the ages of 6 and 14 has been instructed;" the "average number of days of attendance of each pupil enrolled; " the "number of sittings for each 100 pupils enrolled and for each 100 pupils in average attendance;" the "average number of sittings to a building;" "the number of pupils in average attendance to each teacher;" "ratio of male teachers to whole number;" "ratio of high-school enrolment to total enrolment;" "ratio of private school enrolment to total public and private school enrolment;"" ratio of total public and private enrolment to population 6 to 14;" "number of volumes in libraries to each 100 pupils in average attendance;" "assessed value of property per capita of popu lation 6 to 14;" value of school property per capita of population 6 to 14 and of average attendance; ""ratio of value of school property to total assessed valuation;" "amount raised by city tax per capita of population 6 to 14 and of average attendance;" "ratio of amount raised by city or town tax to total assessed valuation;" "salaries of superin. tendents and teachers per capita of population 6 to 14 and of average attendance;" and finally, "ratio of salaries of superintendents and teachers to total assessed valuation."

The several instrumentalities for the training of teachers are carefully considered and represented in Chapter VI. In addition to the public normal schools and to a class of private schools which make the training of teachers their principal work, the summaries of pupils reported in the normal courses of secondary schools and colleges are included in the chapter, so that the general view of normal-school instruction may be as complete as heretofore.

On the other hand, care has been taken in other parts of the volume to display the amount and statistics of normal teaching afforded in each secondary or superior school, and copious cross-references are made wherever necessary.

Kindergartens, of which detailed tables were omitted in the Report for 1884-85, were carefully tabulated in my first Report, and similar tabulations appear in this volume (Chapter VII). The application

of kindergarten methods to the instruction of the blind and of other special classes is set forth in connection with other related facts.

The statistics of secondary instruction (Chapter VIII) have been rendered more complete in regard to public high schools, while the subdivisions adopted for the table correspond more exactly to the present condition of the schools considered, and therefore better facilitate the study of the details.

The changes in the forms and methods of the classification adopted are explained in the remarks relating to these schools. The whole subject was considered from every practicable point of view, and the best result attainable has been presented. It should not be understood, however, that the scheme here indicated is not open to future modifications; on the contrary, the experience gained during the year under review will be used to improve and extend the subject in future volumes. Those familiar with the educational history of the past few years can not fail to be impressed with the evidence it affords of vital force in the superior institutions of learning in the United States, and of the great and growing interest manifested by foreign students of education in the details of their organization, equipment, and conduct.

The number and varied character of these institutions make it exceedingly difficult to devise a scheme suited at once to the just representation of individual institutions and to the record of particulars common to a class. The former is necessary to give a fair idea of the genius and growth of our institutions, and the latter to show their relation to educational problems of universal moment.

Two departures from the scheme formerly employed in this division of the Report have been made, namely, the introduction of Tables 43 and 44, presenting in a single view all the departments of State universities and foundations of private origin which consist of groups of related faculties or schools, and the removal from Table 48 of those departments whose statistics could not be separated from those elsewhere tabulated. These changes are fully explained in Chapter IX.

The treatment of details here, as in the division of secondary instruction, has been determined by the consideration of the information of chief importance to those charged with the duty of promoting the edu cational interests of the country.

Training for special pursuits and the education of special classes are considered with such fulness as is consistent with their relations to other parts of the field of instruction.

The section relating to libraries (Chapter XVIII) is much enlarged since my last Report. The general table of libraries, printed in the Report for 1881-85, was taken as the point of departure, and the tabulated statistics presented in this volume are the result of three processes, viz.: (1) the elimination of libraries connected with schools and systems mentioned in other parts of the volume; (2) the adding of all libraries. discovered since the publication of that list; and (3) the classification of libraries having one thousand or more volumes into seven divisions,

according to the nature of their support and the conditions appended to their use. Summaries of libraries connected with schools and systems treated in other parts of this Report present the reader with the general facts useful for geographical and chronological comparison.

Chapter XXII contains a list of the publications of this Bureau from its origin in 1867 to the year covered by this volume, and an alphabetical index to their contents. This index is intended to render the use of these publications more easy when they are accessible, and to save the time of investigators and applicants when they do not possess the documents themselves.

The general condition and progress of education during the year under review thus set forth is discussed and exemplified in connection with the tables and statistics above described, and needs no further exemplification here. An examination of these discussions, etc., will show that the conditions and progress heretofore characteristic of American education have been, in general, maintained during the year 1886–87. There may have been here and there retrogressions and reactions, but these are more than balanced by healthy growths and judicious improvements. The subjects that attracted the attention of the profession in the year 1885-86 still continue to be the main objects of interest in the following year.

Among notable events of the year in the educational world may be mentioned the celebration by Harvard University of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its foundation; the formal assumption by the corporation of Yale College of the name of "Yale University," as more exactly expressing the extent and importance of its present work in education; the centennial celebration of the incorporation of Columbia College, and the opening by that institution of its "School of Li brary Economy," and the various experiments, public and private, insti tuted for the introduction and application of manual and industrial training in the schools, both public and private.

HISTORY OF AMERICAN EDUCATION.

The Bureau of Education, with your approval, has entered upon an important line of educational inquiry. It has undertaken to investigate the history of American education from its earliest beginnings. The approaching Centennial of the United States Government under the Constitution renders such an historical review of the educational progress of the whole country both fitting and desirable. Our States will be stimulated to greater individual activity in the promotion of sound learning by a comparative history of what has been already accomplished.

THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY.

This new work of inquiry was begun in a very modest way by a study of the history of the College of William and Mary, the oldest collegiate institution of the South. At Williamsburg, the old capital of Virginia,

were trained many of the statesmen of the Revolutionary period, men who devised the so-called "Virginia plau," upon which our present Federal Constitution is based. George Washington was for many years the Chancellor of this famous college, and Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall were among its most distinguished sons. The influence of William and Mary College upon Southern education was carefully traced out, and the results of the inquiry were published as Circular of Information No. 1, 1887, a monograph of ninety pages, which has attracted great interest and favorable mention in the North and West, as well as at the South. The subject of Southern educational history has been so long neglected, and contains so much of real value, that the friends of American education, irrespective of section, are well pleased to have systematic inquiries extended into that part of our common country. The precise scope of the above monograph can be quickly perceived from the following letter which was addressed by me to you.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C., January 20, 1887.

The Honorable THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR,

Washington, D. C. :

SIR: The history of the higher education in the United States deserves organized inquiry and national attention. The origin, development, academic status, and practical usefulness of many of our older and better institutions of learning are scarcely known beyond their own scholastic environment. Documentary and manuscript material for such educational history and statistics is abundant, although often widely scattered, as will be seen by an examination of the bibliography appended to the present sketch.

The College of William and Mary, founded in 1693 by royal grant, and long supported by popular legislation in Virginia, has been suffered to decline almost to ruin since the civil war, which destroyed the greater part of its property. The oldest college in the South, in fact the oldest in the country, with the exception of Harvard University, has been left to decay, while the latter institution, with which William and Mary College used to share the annual income of the bequest by Robert Boyle, the English philosopher, has lately celebrated its 250th anniversary amid general rejoicing, with the President of the United States and representatives of American and European universities to do honor to the occasion. The old college at Williamsburg, which gave Washington his first degree as civil engineer, and to which he gave his last public service as chancellor, the college which trained in law and politics Thomas Jefferson, Governor Randolph, Chief Justice Marshall, and nearly all of the Virginia statesmen of the Revolutionary and formative periods in our Federal history, has not now a single student. Its classic halls are closed and deserted. From a once flourishing faculty, which early and ably represented both history and political science, with other liberal arts, only the president, who is also professor of mathematics and physies, now remains. At the opening of every academic year, in October, Doctor Ewell causes the chapel bell to be rung, reminding Williamsburg that the ancient college still lives. To friends of the higher education in all of our States this fact will echo as a note of warning against public neglect and legislative indifference toward higher institutions of learning.

The present monograph has been prepared by Dr. Herbert B. Adams, the head of the department of history and political science at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, in connection with his more extended inquiry for the Bureau of Education respecting the study of history in American colleges and universities.