part of some of the trustees in reference to his | religious belief; but nothing was publicly stated to warrant any unfriendly assumption of this nature. Dr. Gibbs retained his position at the Free Academy till he was called to Harvard.

Francis J. Child has held the Boylston professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory since the death of Professor Channing, in 1851. He has, during the last few years, rendered acceptable service to the literary public by his selection of a series of English and Scottish ballads, with notes and an introduction, published by Messrs. Little, Brown & Co., in eight volumes. Mr. Child, it is understood, has in preparation an edition of Chaucer, the result of a diligent investigation abroad of the original text, which promises to be of great value to the students of English literature.

by Messrs. Little & Brown at Boston, in 1864. Mr. Abbot has also been a contributor to the Bibliotheca Sacra, and other periodicals.

In 1857 the college received a valuable and unique addition to its library, in the presentation, by Mr. William Gray, of an extensive cóllection of choice engravings, which had been formed by his uncle, the late Hon. Francis C. Gray, a former member of the corporation of Harvard, and an enlightened friend and benefactor of the institution. By the will of the latter, this collection became the property of Mr. William Gray, as residuary legatee. It consisted of three thousand engravings, selected with "the utmost care, judgment, and taste," at an aggregate cost of not less than forty thousand dollars, together with three hundred and fifty volumes illustrating the subjects of art, including the works of Rosellini, Audubon, Wilson, and others. The bequest was accompanied by a letter to the legatee, in which the donor expressed a desire that, “under certain circumstances," the collection should be given to Harvard College, or such other institution as Mr. Gray might see fit, together with sixteen thousand dollars, of which one thousand, with the income, should be aplection in order, and publishing a catalogue of the same, as it was left by the testator. The legatee, Mr. Gray, promptly complied with these suggestions. The college accepted the gift. The "Gray Collection of Engravings," as it is termed, now occupies an alcove of Gore Hall, under the especial charge of a curator, Mr. Louis Thies, who is also engaged in carrying through the press a carefully prepared descriptive catalogue of the works in the collection. The endowment accompanying the collection will provide means for its gradual increase. It is stated by Mr. Thies that this is the best collection in the world for the works of Raphael.

On the decease of the librarian of the College, Dr. Thaddeus William Harris, the assistant, the Rev. John Langdon Sibley, was appointed his successor. Mr. Sibley, besides his indefatigable labors in the immediate duties of his office, to which the prosperity of the library is greatly due, has other claims on the gratitude of Alma Mater, in the preparation, on which he has long been engaged, of a biographical record, so far as attainable, of all the deceased graduates of the university from its first foundation. This work, when it appears, cannot fail to be of great interest. From the well-known habits of the writer it may safely be expected to be distinguished for its accuracy, while it will not be wanting in candor of judgment and characteristic details. Mr. Sibley is a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and his name frequently appears as a contributor to its proceedings. He has now in preparation, at the request of the society, a History of the Triennial Catalogues published by Harvard University. Mr. Sibley was succeeded as assistant librarian by Mr. Ezra Abbot, a gentleman of Boston, eminent for his devotion to bibliography. A signal proof of his devotion to this important branch of literature is exhibited in the curious and extensive catalogue of books on the subject of the volume which he has furnished as an appendix to Mr. Alger's Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life. Mr. Abbot has also rendered an acceptable service to the reading world by his careful revision and collation with the originals of the numerous learned quotations in Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living and Dying. The result of these researches has been given to the public in a new edition of these works, published

Besides this donation, Mr. William Gray has given twenty-five thousand dollars, in five semiannual payments, for the purchase of books for the library. Other important donations to the library are recorded in the annual reports, including the bequest by Mr. Prescott, the historian, of the works, printed and in manuscript, used by him in writing his "History of Ferdinand and Isabella;" a donation by the Hon. Stephen Salisbury, of a fund of five thousand dollars, for the purchase of Greek and Latin literature, and that of a similar sum, the interest to be expended in books, by Mr. F. A. Lane, of New York. The late George Hayward also bequeathed five thousand dollars for the same purpose.

Mr. Francis C. Gray, by a suggestion in his will, similar to that resulting in the endowment of the "Gray collection of engravings," left fifty thousand dollars, for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a Museum of Comparative Zoology. It was not to be appended to any other department, but to be under the charge of an independent faculty, and no part of the income of the fund, it was enjoined, was to be expended for real estate or the payment of salaries. Mr. William Gray tendered this gift to Harvard College, and it was accepted. The sum, however, not being sufficient to accomplish the in

tended object, application was made to the Legislature of Massachusetts for additional means for the purpose. An appropriation was granted of one hundred thousand dollars, on condition that a like amount shall have been obtained by private subscription. Seventy thousand dollars, in addition to the Gray bequest, was speedily raised, a suitable building, a portion of a projected larger edifice, was erected on the college grounds, and, in November, 1859, the collection formed by Professor Agassiz having been placed in it, the museum was dedicated with formal ceremonies. The collections at the museum are freely open to the public, and courses of lectures are given at the building in the department of zoology and geology.

Several other new buildings have been erected within the last ten years. The Appleton Chapel was opened in October, 1858, and a gymnasium building was about the same time erected, which is presided over by a proper instructor, and largely attended.

Louis John Rudolph Agassiz, professor of Geology in the Lawrence Scientific School, curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, &c., was born in Switzerland in 1807. Educated at schools in the cantons, he early acquired a taste for natural history, studied medicine at the medical school at Zurich, and subsequently at Heidelberg and Munich, pursuing especially the study of zoology and botany. Before taking his degree of Doctor in Medicine, he had obtained reputation as a naturalist by his labors on the ichthyological portion of the report of an Austrian and Bavarian scientific exploring expedition to Brazil. He now devoted himself to the preparation of an important work, A Natural History of the Fresh-water Fishes of Europe, and made extensive researches into the fossil species. He was meantime studying the glaciers and their geological phenomena in summer excursions in the Alps, and published the result of his researches in his works entitled Etudes sur les Glaciers and Système Glaciare. In 1846 he came to the United States to continue his explorations, and deliver a course of lectures on the Animal Kingdom at Boston, before the Lowell Institute. The lectures were well received, and he delivered others on Natural History for the same institution during the next three winters. In 1847 he accepted the professorship of Zoology and Botany, in the Scientific School founded by Mr. Lawrence at Cambridge. In 1848 he was engaged in an exploration of the shores of Lake Superior, the results of which were published in the volume written by Mr. Elliott Cabot and others, entitled Lake Superior. In conjunction with Dr. A. A. Gould he published, in 1848, Principles of Zoology, for the use of schools. Continuing his natural history researches in various parts of the country, he has commenced the publication of some of the results of his observations in a series of volumes in quarto, entitled Contributions to the Natural History of the United States. During the winter of 1852-3 he was professor of Comparative Anatomy in the Medical College of Charleston, S. C. Since that time he has been mainly engaged in various duties connected with the Scientific School at Cambridge. In the summer of 1865 he set out

for Brazil, at the head of a picked exploring party, to make investigations in the natural history of the empire.

Mr. Nathaniel J. Bowditch, of whom the reader will find an account on another page, made a liberal and enlightened gift to the university, by the appropriation, in 1860, of seventy thousand dollars, as a foundation for sixteen scholarships, four for each class, with an annual income of two hundred and fifty dollars for each scholarship. This was justly pronounced by President Felton "not only a most munificent act, but one which will forever continue to bless the community. ** In a century, four hundred men of character and ability will have been added to the liberally-educated workers in the community by this timely and generous gift.”*

Mr. Bowditch also left to the College library two thousand dollars for the purchase of books. There are now (1865) thirty-seven scholarships attached to the institution. A spirit of liberality has, in fact, been awakened on all sides. In 1863, Mr. Thomas Lee gave five thousand dollars "for the encouragement of the art of reading aloud among the under-graduates." Scientific School, its library and laboratory, have been handsomely provided for. The school was founded by the generosity of the late Abbott Lawrence. His son, Mr. James Lawrence, has contributed fifty thousand dollars, as a fund for the support of the Chemical and Engineering Departments.

YALE COLLEGE.

[Vol. I., pp. 85-92.]

The

The growth of Yale College from 1855 to 1865 has been gratifying to all the friends of the institution. The number of officers and students has increased; important additions have been made to the funds; some new buildings have been erected, and others have been provided for; and the library, cabinet, and apparatus have been steadily improved.

From the triennial catalogue published in 1865, it appears that nine thousand one hundred and twelve persons have been admitted to degrees in Yale College. Of these, seven thousand four hundred and fifty-three have graduated bachelors of arts in the academical department; six hundred and sixty-nine have graduated doctors of medicine in the medical school; one hundred and fifteen have received the degree of bachelor of laws in the law school; eighty-eight have become bachelors of philosophy in the scientific school; and seven hundred and seventy-seven have received honorary degrees, including a few admitted ad eundem. No degrees have been conferred in the theological school. The number of graduates known to have been ordained as ministers of the gospel is one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine. Of the entire number of graduates, it is supposed that four thousand four hundred and ninety-seven are living, of whom three thousand five hundred and fifty-seven are graduates of the academical department.

* Dr. Lathrop's memoir of N. J. Bowditch, Mass., Hist. Cob lections, 1862.

The annual catalogue for 1864-5 enrolled six hundred and forty-four students as present and engaged in study, of whom four hundred and fifty-eight were members of the academical department; twenty-three were students in theology, thirty-two in law, forty-seven in medicine, and eighty-four in philosophy and natural science.

There are now thirty-two professors in the various departments of the college, besides the president and a corps of tutors and instructors. There are also two vacant professorships. In the academical department there are eleven professors and six tutors; in the law department, one professor and one vacant chair; in the theological department, three professorships and one or two vacant chairs; in the medical department, six professors; and in the philosophical department, eleven professors, besides those who are connected with the academical faculty.

The recent donations to the college have been munificent beyond any in its history; but they have for the most part been directed to specific objects, leaving the general funds of the institution still inadequate to the pressing necessities of the college. Only the more important of these gifts can here be enumerated.

In 1858, Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth bequeathed to the college the chief part of his estate, to be held in trust for the benefit of indigent students. The property was much of it in unimproved lands, and its amount has been lessened by litigation, so that as yet the college has received no income from this source. In 1859, Rev. William A. Macy, a missionary in China, made the college his residuary legatee, and from his estate several thousand dollars were received. In 1864, Joseph Battell, Esq., of New York, presented to the college thirty thousand dollars, as a subscription for the erection of a new chapel. S. B. Chittenden, Esq., gave thirty thousand dollars as a fund for the divinity professorship, the incumbent of the chair being the college pastor. Augustus R. Street, Esq., made up the sum of thirty thousand dollars, which he had been for some time contributing as the foundation of a professorship of modern languages; and several gentlemen united in a gift of twenty thousand dollars for a professorship of botany. Pelatiah Perit, Esq., also bequeathed to the college the sum of fifteen thousand dollars, as the foundation of another professorship.

An anonymous donor proposed to erect a new dormitory for the use of students, at a cost of about ninety thousand dollars, and Henry Farnum, Esq., of Chicago, gave thirty thousand dollars for a second dormitory. For the encourage'ment of a love of the fine arts, Mr. A. R. Street is now erecting at his own cost, upon the college green, a costly and ornamental building, in freestone, to be occupied as a museum for collections of paintings, statuary, engravings, casts, 'models, and the like, and as a school for theoretical and practical instruction in the principles and methods of the fine arts. It is supposed that the collection of historical paintings bequeathed to the college by the artist, Colonel John Trumbull, will form the nucleus of a gallery of paintings. It is also hoped that, by means of carefully selected models and casts, procured in

the different cities of Europe, good illustrations will be afforded of Greek and Roman art, as well as of mediæval and modern taste. The building which is now erecting promises to be more substantial and beautiful than any on the college square.

The funds of the Theological School have been increased from various sources, including a gift of twenty-five thousand dollars from Hon. W. A. Buckingham, now Governor of Connecticut; a legacy from Mr. Wm. Burroughs, of Philadelphia, and generous gifts from David Smith, Esq., of Norwich, W. W. De Forest, Esq., of New York, C. S. Bushnell, Esq., of New Haven, and others.

The Sheffield Scientific School has also been endowed within the period referred to. Joseph E. Sheffield, Esq., of New Haven, has given to this department of the college a commodious building, fitted up with laboratories, lecturerooms, and recitation-rooms, costing no less than fifty thousand dollars; he also gave a fund of fifty thousand dollars for the maintenance of the school. He is now making a costly addition to the building, so as to provide suitable accommodations for the increasing number of students, and also a library-room and a tower for astronomical observations. Other gentlemen have made generous gifts to the school, among them O. F. Winchester, Esq., of New Haven, a donation of five thousand dollars. In 1863 the State of Connecticut appropriated to the school the income from a fund of one hundred and twentyfive thousand dollars, derived from land-scrip given to the State by Congress, for the encouragement of instruction in applied and theoretical science.

The college has been able, from its own funds, to construct a good gymnasium for physical exercise. The Medical School, by the sale of the building which it formerly occupied, was enabled to erect a new and more convenient structure. Among the more important additions to the library may be mentioned the gift of nearly one thousand volumes in Greek literature, from President Woolsey, the gift of one thousand dollars for the purchase of musical works, and valuable collections which were bought from the libraries of Professor Silliman and Hon. Chas. W. Bradley. The last-named gentleman, before his death, had made many most generous gifts to the library of the American Oriental Society (which is kept in the college library), on condition that if the Oriental Society books were removed from New Haven, his books should become the property of the college.

If we turn from the material resources of the college to consider the changes in the corps of teachers, we shall find that many of the older officers have been removed by death, and their places have been filled by a corps of younger men. President Woolsey is still at the head of all the affairs of the college, having entered upon the twentieth year of his presidential office. His predecessor, the venerable Jeremiah Day, now more than ninety-three years of age, is still a member of the college corporation and of the prudential committee, having his faculties unimpaired, and his health adequate to the various calls which are made

upon him. His associates for fifty years, Professors Kingsley and Silliman, are now both gone. Three of the professors whose names are identified with the foundation of the Theological School, Taylor, Goodrich, and Gibbs, have died; the fourth, Rev. Dr. E. T. Fitch, has retired from active duties. Four of the medical professors, Ives, Knight, Beers, and Charles Hooker, are also dead. Professors Olmsted and Larned, of the academical department, and Mr. Herrick, recently librarian and treasurer, have likewise been taken away. In briefly referring to each of these gentlemen we shall follow the order in which their names have appeared on the college catalogue-the order of academic age.

The venerable Professor Silliman, who for nearly three-quarters of a century had been identified with the history and progress of Yale College-having entered the institution in 1792, and from the time he had graduated been employed as tutor and professor-died at his residence in New Haven the morning of the day appointed for a National Thanksgiving, November 24th, 1864. Since 1853, Professor Silliman had been relieved from the active duties of instruction in the college, but he retained his rank as emeritus professor, and his influence was, as usual, widely and beneficently exerted in behalf of the seat of learning to which he had been so long attached. Though far advanced in life, dying at the age of eighty-five, time had laid his hand gently upon him; his form was erect and his faculties were unimpaired to the last, adding a new instance to the many recorded of the genial old age of naturalists and men of science, and the favorable influence on mind and body of their pursuits. His integrity and amiability gained him the universal respect of his friends and associates, as his services to the cause of science, through his well-known "American Journal" and otherwise, made his name regarded with interest throughout the world.

The number of this journal, which he had founded and conducted, succeeding his death, contains an obituary recording his services to Yale College, and his many honorable traits of character, closing with the following notice of his decease. He had been somewhat unwell for a few days before, suffering apparently from a cold, when, on the morning of the 24th, he awoke early, after a night of quiet rest, feeling stronger, as he said, than he had done for some days. He spoke with his wife of the many reasons there were for thankfulness, both public and private, dwelling at length upon the causes for national gratitude, especially in the recent re-election to the Presidency of a man who had proved himself so true, so honest, so upright in conducting the affairs of the Government as Mr. Lincoln. As was his custom, while still in his bed, he offered up a short prayer, and repeated a familiar hymn of praise. In resuming his conversation, before rising, he spoke of the possibility of his attending the public services of the day, of the happiness of his home, of the love of his children, and, in strong terms of endearment, of his wife. Just as these his last words of love were uttered, there was a sudden change of countenance, a slightly heavier breath, and he was gone."

An obituary notice in the London Athenæum,* communicated by an English friend in America, after noticing several incidents of this touching picture of his decease, adds, as the testimony of a long and familiar acquaintance"He was a noble, generous-hearted Christian gentleman; with him science and religion went hand in hand. Ever cheerful and happy himself, he tried to make others the same, and died, as he had lived, one of the best of men."

Dr. Eli Ives, one of the founders of the medical institution of Yale College, was born in New Haven, February 7th, 1779, and graduated at Yale College in 1799. His death occurred October 8th, 1861, at the age of eighty-two years. From 1813 to 1829 he was the professor of materia medica and botany, after which he became professor of the theory and practice of medi cine, and so continued until he resigned, in 1852. Dr. Worthington Hooker, the author of several medical essays and of a number of school-books in different branches of natural science, was his

successor.

Rev. Nathaniel W. Taylor, D. D., one of the originators of the Theological School, was born in New Milford, Connecticut, June 23d, 1786, and graduated in Yale College in 1807. From 1812 to 1822 he was pastor of the First Church of Christ in New Haven. He then entered upon the professorship of didactic theology in Yale College. The duties of this post he discharged with distinguished ability for thirty-six years, during which period about seven hundred young men came under his instruction. During his life he published various essays and sermons which attracted marked attention from the theologians of New England, and since his decease, five volumes, containing his principal lectures, and a selection of his doctrinal and practical sermons, have been given to the public. death took place in New Haven, March 10th, 1858, in the seventy-second year of his age. The instruction in systematic theology has been given for the last seven years by his son-in-law, Rev. N. Porter, D. D., one of the professors in the academical department of Yale College. The death of Dr. Taylor led to commemorative discourses and notices from the pens of Drs. Bacon, Dutton, and Thompson, Professor Fisher, and others.

His

Dr. Jonathan Knight, for over fifty years a professor in the Medical School, and also the lecturer on anatomy to the senior class in the academical department of the college, was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, September 4th, 1789. He graduated at Yale College in 1808. In 1813 he became the professor of anatomy and physi ology, and in 1838 he was transferred to the chair of surgery. He was president of the American Medical Association in 1853. As a lecturer and public speaker he was distinguished, and as a skilful operator he acquired great celebrity. His published writings were very few in number. Dr. Francis Bacon succeeded him in office, and published a commemorative sketch of his life in connection with the funeral discourse which was preached by Rev. L. Bacon, D. D. Dr. Timothy P. Beers was professor of obste

* January 21, 1865,