perintendence, and control of the professors of the collegiate department and a committee of the board." The children who attend them, to the number of about one-hundred and fifty, are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic; and the whole expense of their instruction, including the salaries of teachers, the rent of rooms, the cost of books, and other incidental charges, is little, if at all short of two thousand dollars per annum.
2. Department of Natural Science.—The present condition of this department is by no means flattering. There are nominally five professorships—those of natural philosophy, of botany, of natural history, of mineralogy and chemistry applied to agriculture and the arts, and of comparative anatomy. A regulation of the department requires that annual courses of lectures should be publicly delivered by each of the professors; but it has been only partially complied with. We have been favoured with highly valuable courses, from Dr. Patterson upon natural philosophy, from Dr. William P. C. Barton upon botany, and from William H. Keating upon chemistry and mineralogy; but the last of these gentlemen is now absent from the country, Dr. Barton has attached himself to another institution, and the professor of natural philosophy is at present the only efficient member of the faculty. It would be a source of great regret, should an establishment which promised so much honour to the university, and so much good to the community, be allowed to fail. The public patronage, however, affords an insufficient compensation for the labour and talents which are requisite for a proper performance of the duties of the several professorships; and it is hardly probable that this department will ever prosper, unless the trustees should be able, from their own funds, to supply the deficiency of public support, by salaries adequate to the services required.[1]
- ↑ This department of the university, which the establishment of the
