B. SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION IN THE COLLEGIATE DEPARTMENT.

Meanwhile, on the 6th of January, 1852, the Board of Trustees received a communication from the Faculty of Arts relative to a reorganization of the course of instruction in that department. At the April meeting, the committee on the government of the College, to whom this communication had been referred, made a report presenting a plan for the reorganization of the Department of Arts. On the 20th of April, the special committee, to which this report had been referred, reported in favor of its adoption, and on May 4, 1852, after a full discussion, the plan was finally adopted by the board. Most of its provisions relate solely to the Department of Arts, but section 3 is as follows:

If any one shall have attended one course in Natural Theology and the Evidences of Christianity, all the courses in the Departments of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Chemistry, and two courses in Modern Languages, or two courses in Moral and Natural Philosophy, or two courses of Physiology and Natural History, he shall be entitled to receive the degree of Bachelor of Science.

Section 6 reads thus:

Such students as shall have received the degree of Bachelor of Science (of three years' standing) shall be entitled to the degree of Master of Science, on presenting to the Faculty a thesis which shall give satisfactory evidence that the author has continued to devote himself with success to science.

This action of the University authorities is doubtless to be regarded as a concession to the growing demand in the community for a course of education more scientific and less classical in its character; a course preparing the student for a wider range of life work than was to be found within the three learned professions. This parallel and elective course within the Department of Arts went into operation at once, and is announced in the University catalogue for 1852-53. Several students are enrolled in this and subsequent years as taking this course, and Henry Vethake Totten was graduated in 1854 as the first Bachelor of Science of the University.

C. DEPARTMENT OF MINES, ARTS, AND MANUFACTURES.

A more important movement, however, was in process of development. The special committee, which had reported favorably on April 20, 1852, reported not only a plan for the reorganization of the Department of Arts, but also a plan for establishing a School of Mines, or, as it was amended at the meeting, a School of Mines, Arts, and Manufac tures. On the 1st of June, 1852, the Board of Trustees considered very fully the proposed plan, and adopted the report of the committee as follows:

Resolved, that it is expedient to establish a School of Mines, Arts and Manufactures as one of the departments of the University, and such department is hereby established upon the following plan:

I. The course of instruction in the school to occupy three years.

II. Pupils may be admitted at the age of 16.

III. The school to consist of the following departments, viz: (1) Natural Philosophy, including General Chemistry; (2) Technical Chemistry, Chemical Analysis and Metallurgy; (3) Pure Mathematics; (4) Civil Engineering, General Mining, Surveying, Art of Mining, Mining Machinery; (5) Geology, Mineralogy and Paleontology; (6) Sketching and Plan Drawing; (7) Theoretical and Practical Mechanics, and its Application to Machinery; (8) The German and French Languages.

IV. The studies to be so conducted by the respective professors as to combine strict theory with the fullest practical instruction; and for this purpose, every opportunity to be taken for visiting with the pupils the various workshops and manufactories within reach, the use of instruments to be taught in the field, and the months of July and August to be devoted to geological excursions and visits to mines.

V. Examinations of the pupils to be held once a year, by the respective professors, in the presence of a committee appointed by the Board of Trustees, of which committee at least one member shall be of competent practical knowledge in the particular department.

VI. An appropriate degree to be given to graduating pupils.

VII. Pupils may attend but one or more departments and shall, on completing their studies, receive a certificate of proficiency in such department or departments. Such certificates to be from the University, by authority of the Board of Trustees.

It was further resolved at this meeting:

That the first, second, sixth and seventh departments shall be under the care and instruction of Professors Booth and Frazer; and the third under the care of Professor Vethake, until otherwise arranged. And that professors shall be chosen for the fourth and fifth departments.

On the 5th of October following, the faculty of the School of Mines, Arts, and Manufactures was completed by the election of Charles B. Trego as professor of geology, mineralogy, and paleontology, and J. H. Alexander as professor of civil engineering and mining. Subsequently on the 26th of October, 1855, upon the resignation of Professor Alexander, the Board of Trustees elected Fairman Rogers to the professorship of Civil Engineering and Mining.

The existence of the two courses of scientific instruction already in operation in the University seems to have retarded the practical establishment of the School of Mines, Arts, and Manufactures. On the 20th of March, 1855, however, a special committee of seven, of which Bishop Alonzo Potter was chairman, which had been appointed in January of that year to consider the subject of a reorganization of the Collegiate Department, made a report in which incidentally a resolution was of fered requesting the committee on the government of the College to

Ascertain as early as may be whether the gentlemen elected to the several professorships in the Department of Mines, Arts, and Manufactures still hold such appointments, and if they do whether they are prepared to enter upon their duties; and if so, to fix the time for opening the schools in the said Department, and announce it by suitable advertisements in the city of Philadelphia, the State of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere as they may deem most fit.

This resolution having been adopted by the board at its next meeting, the committee on the government of the College, at the October meeting, reported vacancies in the chair of pure mathematics and in

that of civil engineering. The latter professorship was immediately filled by the election of Fairman Rogers, as above stated. He entered at once upon its duties, and began on the 19th of November, 1855, a course of twenty-eight lectures upon civil engineering. These lectures were delivered to a class of five students and were concluded on the 28th of January, 1856. The announcement of the Department of Mines, Arts, and Manufactures appears for the first time in the catalogue of the University for the year 1855-256.

As a proof of the general interest taken in this movement to establish technical instruction in the University, the following communications to the Board of Trustees may be cited. On the 6th of March, 1855, the American Iron Association held its meeting in Philadelphia. One of the objects of the association, as set set forth in its constitution, being "to encourage the formation of such schools as are designed to give the young iron master a proper and thorough scientific training preparatory to his engaging in practical operations," the convention passed the following resolution:

Whereas this convention is informed that it is proposed by the University of Pennsylvania to establish a School of Arts and Mines, and that one of its objects will be the proper instruction and training of pupils in such branches of knowledge and practice as are required for the management of iron works: Therefore

Resolved, That in the opinion of this convention the establishment of such a school is eminently to the economical conduct of the iron manufacture and that we will give to it our hearty support under the care of the University.

The second communication, dated April 3, 1855, is from the committee of ways and means and informs the board that by the will of the late Elliott Cresson, esq., the sum of $5,000 is bequeathed to his executors in trust, "to be applied toward founding a school of mines for developing the mineral treasures of my native State."

On the 5th of February, 1856, the committee on the government of the College made a further report on the Department of Mines, Arts, and Manufactures, and recommended that thereafter it be composed of the following professorships:

A professorship of natural philosophy; a professorship of technical chemistry and metallurgy, embracing their application to the manufacture of iron and other metals; a professorship of pure mathematics; a professorship of civil engineering and surveying; a professorship of mining; a professorship of geology, mineralogy and paleontology; a professorship of the fine arts, embracing the elements of drawing and sketching from nature and their application to practical art; a professorship of architecture and practical building; a professorship of theoretical and practical mechanics.

The report closed with the following resolution:

Resolved, That the Department of Mines, Arts, and Manufactures be constituted in the manner and with the professorships recommended by the committee on the government of the College; that nominations to fill the vacant professorships be made at the next stated meeting of the board; and that the same committee bɔ instructed to consider and report such further measures as may be necessary for the organization of the department and the opening of the schools.