Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1876 [PAGE 90]

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90 The report was laid on the table for the present. Gregory, then read his report as follows. The Regent, Dr„

To the Board of Trustees of the Illinois Industrial University: GENTLEMEN—The unusual length of my homeward voyage prevented my being present at y o u r September meeting and a communication, which I sent forward by mail, failed to reach you before your adjournment. I shall have, therefore, some matters to bring before you which should have been presented for your action at that time. The term just closing has been as full of prosperity as any of its predecessors. The number of new students admitted is 106, and the average of their standing is somewhat higher than in former yearn. The whole number in attendance during the term is 350, which is a little less than the attendance of the corresponding term of last year. The financial panic, which began to affect educational institutions only after its influence had nearly expended its force on the business world, still lingers in the former, the difficulty of securing employment preventing many self-sustaining students from returning to study this year, and embarrassments of many families forbidding to send their sons. But these causes are already diminishing, and the indications now promise a larger attendance for the year, as a whole, than that of any former year. I count it as a certain fact that the numbers asking instruction here will steadily increase, as the rich facilities you have provided become more and more known till our utmost capacity is reached. Every visitor who comes to see us expresses his surprise at the extent and character or the institution, and often urges that a wider and fuller advertisement shall be made of the facts to the Deople of the State. Tbe

SCHOOL OF DOMESTIC SCIENCE,

under Miss L. C. Allen, was opened, as you provided, at the beginning of this term and has already two classes of young ladies pursuing with much interest the special studies of the course. Miss Allen has also introduced some systematic physical and eallisthenic exercises to promote the. health of the female students, and is doing whatever she finds possible to secure to them " sound, minds in Found bodies,"—a high and practical culture, in keeping with the high aims of the University, I lay before you, in paper marked " A , " her request for additional apparatus for the Gymnasium, and ior fitting up the toilet room, and cordially endorse them.

MECHANICAL DEPARTMENT.

I also commend to your favorable consideration the requests of Prof. Webber, for apparatus, to> be found in paper " B ; " also, for fitting up an additional laboratory room, paper marked " C." The work in this department is going forward with success, under the united charge of Professor Webber and C. W. Silver, teacher of Agricultural Chemistry. The need is becoming more and more apparent for a new laboratory building, which shall yield accommodations to the common Analytical Chemistry and to Agricultural Chemistry, to Metallurgy and to other technical applications of this broad and fundamental science. It ought to be kept steadily in view as one of the pressing wants of the University. Since your last meeting, a large amount of apparatus for the mining and metallurgical departments has been received from Germany, being a part of the apparatus ordered by you nearly two years ago. We have no room in the present laboratory for the accommodation and use of this apparatus.

THE VETERINARY STUDIES

Have been prosecuted under Dr. Prentiss, who was re-employed by your committee for this purpose. I present Dr. Prentiss' request—paper " D "—for a proper room for making directions and anatomical preparations of the domestic animals, and also from some stalls for animals to be received for treatment by the class. As the old veterinary building has been converted into dormitories, it seems necessary to erect a n e w and more convenient one, at some retired but convenient spot on the grounds, where the operations of this department may be carried on without annoyance to any one. A small building, with a single room, might be erected on the grounds, oppositethe south dormitory buildings, for $150 or $200, with some stalls near at hand. If your funds will not admit the outlay, I believe an appeal to the legislature would be favorably received. A building for the permanent use of the department, with sufficient stalls, would cost from $500 to $1,000. I also communicate Dr. P's request—" E"—for the purchase of one of Dr. Auzoux's celebrated papier-mache models of the horse, to be used in the study of veterinary science. To ascertain t h e cost more exactly of these models, I wrote to Dr. Auzoux, Paris, and a letter just received from him states that such are the demands upon him that he cannot furnish the model before next July, if ordered now, and that the price, including packing complete, 4,140 francs. This apparatus may seem expensive, but the importance of this department to our agricultural students and to the stock growing interests of our State will amply justify this expenditure. A model of thiskind was one of the first purchases made ior the veterinary department at Cornell University.

LIBRARY AND PERIODICALS.

I communicate a list of books made up from the several departments, to be purchased for t h e library. Many of them are needed at once and all are desirable at the earliest day practicable. The rich library of this University has been one of its most useful and most attractive features, and nothing would be more fatal to its future growth and prosperity than to let the library decline for lack of the fresh volumes which the active science and scholarship of the age is adding constantly to the stores of learning. Not less than $1,000 annually ought to be devoted to the purchase of books, exclusive of all other charges for library expenses. Our subscriptions for periodicals is also just expiring and needs to be renewed. Paper marked " F " is the list of periodicals taken the past year with such changes as the professors in the several departments have desired.

WOOD C A R V I N G .

The experiment in this branch oi art and industry made under your favor try Miss James, is meeting with a reasonable success. The teacher is paid entirely by fees paid by the class. The number of students in this class for the current term is four. A larger number have intimated