Astronomy are instructed in the theory and use of all the instruments of the Observatory.

The principal instruments are an equatorial of 12 inches aperture, by Alvan Clark & Sons, provided with a filar micrometer and spectroscopes, solar and stellar, two of which have very high dispersive power; a transit instrument of three inches aperture, by Fauth & Co., with collimators of the same aperture; a prime vertical instrument of the same size and by the same makers; sextants; two astronomical clocks, a chronometer and a chronograph.

PHYSICS.

PROFESSOR CRAWFORD.

The exercises in this department for the current year are as ⚫follows:

For the Sophomores, A required course of five hours a week for two terms, consisting of recitations in Daniell's Principles of Physics, with occasional experimental lectures.

For the Juniors, 1st, An elective course of five hours a fortnight throughout the year, consisting of experimental lectures. in Acoustics and Optics. Number in class, fourteen.

2nd, An elective course in Practical Physics. Those who take this elective must work at least two and a half hours consecutively in the laboratory five times a fortnight throughout the year. The text-book mainly used as furnishing an outline of the laboratory course is Kohlrausch's Physical Measurements, the experiments in which indicate the grade of work required in the course. Number in class, six.

For the Seniors, An elective course in Practical Physics, being a continuation of the Junior laboratory course, and requiring the same amount of time. Number in class, three. Once in three or four weeks, a meeting of the classes in Practical Physics is held, at which several of the members are expected to give, in the form of short lectures, a detailed account of the work they have recently done.

There is also a special class, meeting once a week, in the elements of the Mathematical Theory of Electricity, which forms

part of the work assigned this year for those purposing to take Special Honors in Physics.

The department is well supplied with apparatus for the illustration of most of the important principles of Physics. The following are some of the principal pieces used in the laboratory:

Cathetometer, by Bamberg of Berlin.

Balance, by Bunge of Hamburg.

Small goniometer, seven inch circle, by Elliott Bros.

Large goniometer, by Hilger, with 18 inch circle (graduated by Troughton & Simms), achromatic and quartz lenses, and automatic minimum deviation attachment.

Two of Rutherford's diffraction gratings.
Diffraction bench, by Duboscq.

Jolly's air thermometer.

Most of the important pieces of Koenig's acoustic apparatus. Apparatus for electrical measurements, mostly of Elliott Bros.' make, including Thomson's mirror galvanometer, Thomson's quadrant and trap-door electrometers, sine, tangent, and astatic galvanometers, conductivity apparatus, condenser, resistance boxes, Wheatstone's bridge, thermopiles, etc., etc.

The laboratory is connected with the observatory clocks, and has the use of the chronograph and spectroscopes belonging to the astronomical department.

CHEMISTRY.

PROFESSOR ATWATER; MR. ROCKWOOD.

1. ELEMENTARY CHEMISTRY.-This is required for the Juniors of the Classical, the Sophomores of the Latin-Scientific, and the Freshmen of the Scientific course. It extends through the fall and winter terms, the exercises occurring on alternate days, and numbering in all about eighty. The exercises consist of lectures and laboratory practice, with occasional oral and written recitations. The elementary principles of inorganic and theoretical chemistry are studied. A small number of lectures on organic and physiological chemistry are also included. Eliot and Storer's Elementary Manual

of Chemistry is used, chiefly because of its very convenient descriptions of experiments for laboratory practice. Remsen's Theoretical Chemistry is employed for reference also. Each student performs, in the laboratory, the larger number of the experiments described in the lectures and text-book.

2. QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS-To students in the Scientific course during the last three years, and those in the other courses during the last two years, laboratory chemistry is offered as an elective. It is assumed that the opportunities of the required elementary chemistry will give sufficient drill in the principles of the science and in laboratory practice to enable the student to work understandingly in qualitative analysis, to which the first year's elective work in the laboratory is, in most cases, devoted. The exercises, like those of the other electives, occur five times a fortnight, thus making about ninety in the year. Each exercise occupies at least two and a half hours. Opportunity for spending a longer time in the laboratory is offered to all and utilized by a considerable number of the students. The usual course of preliminary study of reactions and subsequent analysis of complex substances is pursued. A feature in which the method differs from that followed in some laboratories is found in the fact that but comparatively little use is made of tables or text-books of qualitative analysis except such as the students prepare for themselves on the basis of their own observations, with the aid, of course, of oral explanations, and lectures.

3. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS is usually taken up at the beginning of the second year's work in the laboratory. After a series of general exercises for practice, such as are laid down in Fresenius' Quantitative Analysis, the students are encouraged to enter upon special work such as seems desirable in each case. Those who propose to study medicine, for instance, engage in the preparation and determination of the proximate compounds of the body, in urine analysis, or in other work, qualitative as well as quantitative, in physiological chemistry.

4. THEORETICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY.--To students who have completed the elementary chemistry and a year's work in the laboratory, are offered elective courses in theoretical and biological chemistry. The exercises consist in

part of laboratory work, and in part of readings and essays upon special topics. The classes meet the instructor in a less formal manner than is usual in other subjects, often in the evening, discussions replacing stated lectures. The following special topics are assigned for the current college year :

1. The Atomic Theory. 2. Atomic Weights. 3. Valence. 4. Constitution of the Albuminoids. 5. Chemistry of the Nutrition of Man. 6. Sources of the Nitrogen of Plants.

Besides the larger hand-books, dictionaries and chemical journals, the following special treatises are recommended for the work of the current year :

Wurtz, The Atomic Theory.
Maxwell, Theory of Heat.

Tait, Recent Advances in Physical Science. Lectures on the Structure of Matter.

Armstrong, Maxwell, and others, Articles "Chemistry," "Atom," and "Molecule," in Encyclopedia Britannica. Gamgee, Physiological Chemistry.

Foster, Physiology. Chapters on Chemical Basis of the Animal Body and Nutrition.

In the current year the number of students in analytical chemistry is thirteen, in advanced (theoretical and biological) chemistry, four.

Candidates for special honors in chemistry pursue special courses of study and laboratory work cognate with those in advanced chemistry.

GEOLOGY.

PROFESSOR RICE.

The required course in Geology occupies six hours per week during the third term of the Junior year. Instruction is given chiefly by lectures, Dana's Text-Book being used for reference. The object of this course is to bring the student to an intelligent appreciation of the general laws and principles of geological science. The problems of dynamical geology are discussed as fully as the time will allow. Stratigraphical and paleontological details are dealt with only so far as is necessary to illustrate general principles. Specimens, maps, and

diagrams are freely used. Illustrations of geological principles are taken, so far as practicable, from localities in the immediate vicinity of Middletown; and occasional excursions are arranged to give a knowledge of local geology, and to teach the student how to observe geological phenomena in general.

It is proposed to establish next year an elective course in geology for advanced students; but the plan is not sufficiently matured for detailed statement.

There are two elective courses in studies closely related to geology.

I. A course in Physical Geography, given to the same students who take Botany, and occupying the interval between the two parts of the botanical course. The text-book used is Geikie's Elementary Lessons. Number in class, 27.

II. A course in Mineralogy, five times a fortnight, throughout the year. This course comprises three parts:-1, a course in crystallography and physical mineralogy, in which the instruction is given chiefly by lectures, illustrated by models of crystalline forms and by crystals; 2, a course of laboratory work in determinative mineralogy; 3, a course of lectures on descriptive mineralogy. The lectures on descriptive mineralogy are given in the Museum, so that the characteristics of each important mineral can be illustrated by a full suite of specimens. The works of Dana and Brush are used for referNumber in class, 2.

ence.

BIOLOGY.

DR. CONN; MR. BARROWS.

I. PHYSIOLOGY.—Dr. Conn.—A required course in Physiology, three hours a week during the fall and winter terms of the Junior year. The instruction is given chiefly by lectures, Martin's Human Body being used as a text-book. The object of the course is to give the student a general knowledge of the functions of the various organs of the body in their normal condition. The origin of the energy of the body, its distribution, and final transformations, are treated in accordance with the doctrine of the conservation of energy. Enough anatomy is given to render the physiological discus