48.271 were of post-nuptial conception, 22,094 of anti-nuptial conception and 24,343 illegitimate. The gradual decline of the birth rate in France and other countries may be attributed plausibly in part at least to physiological infertility, but the sudden change in New South Wales in the course of ten years can not be so explained.
NEW ACADEMIC BUILDINGS.
American universities and colleges are more likely to lack men and endowments than buildings. While the salaries of college teachers have remained about stationary and have really become smaller, in view of the increased cost of living and the more complicated social conditions due to larger earnings in other professions. buildings are being continually erected on all sides. And the buildings are certainly welcome. The high school is likely to occupy the most imposing building, except perhaps banks and offices, in each town. The school, college and university express in material form the civic pride of the people somewhat as did formerly the church or cathedral.
We reproduce here illustrations of two of the buildings recently erected for the physical sciences. The Engineering Hall of Washington and Lee University is the gift of Mr. William H. Reid of Chicago. It is of colonial style, in keeping with that of the central university building, of brick with stone trimmings, a hundred feet in length, with an average width of fifty-six feet. The ground floor is used by the department of civil engineering with an electrical laboratory; the second
