The writer spent a day and a night at Wellesley College, and had some opportunity of seeing the life of the place, and formed a very favourable impression of it. The relations between the authorities and the students seemed particularly cordial and friendly; the girls, in spite of the somewhat long hours of work, were bright and happy-looking, and the atmosphere of refinement and kindliness was peculiarly delightful.

The College has had from the beginning a fine library, which now contains between 40,000 and 50,000 volumes, and it has an endowment which provides for its increase. The room itself resembles the library of one of our old English Colleges, and contains an interesting series of portraits and autographs of distinguished men, Americans and English. The College also possesses a valuable and unique collection of books and MSS. in the North American Indian languages (the Powell Library). The laboratories are inadequate to their purpose, but the rapid growth of the College has somewhat strained its resources. It needs a science building where the laboratory work could be carried on more thoroughly, and which could be isolated from the dwellings. Doubtless before long public munificence will provide for this and other pressing requirements of an institution which is doing such admirable work for so large a number of young

women.

Bryn Mawr, near Philadelphia.

This College, although it is only eight years old, having been opened in the autumn of 1885, has

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already taken a very high place among the women's Colleges. It has laid itself out to give advanced instruction, and has thus a large number of graduate students, three of them being certificated students of Girton College, two wranglers, and one who took a first class in the classical tripos. This fact gives English people a convenient standard from which to estimate the character of the instruction given at Bryn Mawr. The faculty consists of men and women of very high standing, including graduates of the great German Universities, Zurich, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Cambridge (England), a distinguished Newnham student, and the only woman who has taken the D.Sc. in mathematics at the

University of London. There are 38 instructors, and 194 students, 32 being graduates, doing postgraduate work. Several of these are Fellows of the College; their position is of special interest (there not being anything to exactly correspond to it in our English Colleges). One of the fellowships—that in Greek-is held by the Girton student of classics mentioned above. The regulations state:

"The most distinguished place among graduate students will be held by the Fellows, who must reside in the College during the academic year. Nine fellowships, of the value of five hundred and twenty-five dollars each, are awarded annually. They are open to graduates of Bryn Mawr College, or of any other College of good standing.”

Undergraduates are required to pass the Bryn Mawr entrance examination, which appears to be nearly equivalent to the Matriculation Examination

1 Another is held in mathematics by a Girton student (1894).

of the University of London. The only exemption allowed is the Harvard certificate in equivalent, or a certificate from a College or University of acknowledged standing. Private schools prepare the majority of students. In the current calendar the proportion from private schools is 79.8 per cent.; other Colleges and Universities send 9.8 per cent., and High Schools only 8 per cent.; the rest (24 per cent.) were prepared by private study.

The course for the B.A. degree requires some English, science-or science and history-and philosophy. This only occupies part of the time; the rest must be given to the “Group" selected by the student. The group system is borrowed from the course at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. It is intended to allow some degree of specialization, with provision for width of view by combining subjects. Five groups are arranged as follows: 1. Any language with any language. 2. Any science with any science. 3. Mathematics with Greek and Latin. 4. Mathematics with Physics. 5. History, with

Political Science.

The College is situated near Philadelphia (10 miles distant), in grounds of forty acres. There is a main building devoted to lecture rooms, etc., and a separate science hall and gymnasium. The students reside in three separate halls, each with its own kitchens, dining-room, etc., and each under the charge of a mistress. The President of the College is a man, but the Dean of the Faculty-a woman— has, of course, a very large share in the management of the College. The fee for tuition is $100

(£20), for board $150 (£30); room rent varies, according to the room or rooms taken-from $125 (£25) to $250 (£50). Thus the total charge is from £75 to £100. There is a fine library, on which £600 is spent annually for books. 172 periodicals are taken. It includes the library of M. Arniaud, of Paris, the eminent Assyriologist.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This magnificent institution, perhaps the most remarkable in Boston, was founded in 1861 and opened in 1865. It is a University of Industrial Science. The greater part of its work is outside the scope of the present inquiry, the great majority of its graduates being men preparing for the various engineering professions. It is, however, open to women, who there study architecture, history, and economics, and above all science. The designer of the Woman's Building at the Chicago Exhibition received her training here. The Institute occupies a large number of buildings, the two most important being the "Rogers" and the "Walker" buildings,

prominent architectural features of the best quarter of Boston. In them are the large laboratories, fitted in the most complete manner; 625 students can be accommodated at once in the chemical section.

Central and fundamental in its curriculum are thorough introductory courses in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics. There are twelve complete courses, each of four years' duration, by which the degree of B.Sc. is given; many women have

prepared themselves to be teachers of science, the degree having a very high value. A rigid matriculation examination is required. The work in sanitary science, which is in great part under the direction of a lady, Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, is followed by women who intend to teach domestic science in schools. The equipment for the study of history and economics is very elaborate; what are termed "laboratory methods" are largely used, i.e., the students do original work for themselves in the library; there are two courses in statistics. The President of the institution, we may remark, is General Francis A. Walker, the economist.

University of Chicago.

This University is a striking example both of the American enthusiasm for education and of the munificence of their wealthy men towards it. As Chicago hopes (it is said) to be one day the greatest commercial centre of the United States, perhaps of the world, she must needs have a great University to maintain intellectual and spiritual ideals against the influence of materialism. Such an institution is now being actually established by the continued force of a group of wealthy and eminent citizens and of the body of deans and professors, who have been brought together from all the great Universities of the world. Its history deserves a note, as illustrating the power of voluntary and private effort in education. In 1889 the American Baptist Education Society decided to establish a well equipped College in Chicago; subscriptions poured in, the