THE GROWTH OF THE STATE UNIVERSITIES OF THE CENTRAL WEST.
Harvard was once under the control of the State of Massachusetts; now there is agitation in favor of taxing the university. This change in attitude may not injure the university, but it is unfortunate for the people. In the central and western states the universities are supported with increasing liberality. In spite of the vast endowments of Chicago and Stanford, there is reason to believe that the state universities of Illinois and California will not be allowed to fall behind. The extraordinary growth of the state universities of the central west is shown on the accompanying chart, which was used in connection with the inauguration of President James, at the University of Illinois. The seven-fold increase in the number of students at that university in twelve years is most remarkable, but it is nearly paralleled by Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The present registration in the largest eastern private foundations is as follows: Harvard, 5,283; Columbia, 4,755; Cornell, 3,871; Yale, 3,477. In the four leading state universities of the middle west it is: Michigan, 4,521; Minnesota, 3,940; Illinois, 3,635; Wisconsin, 3,083. There are 17,386 students in the one group and 15,179, in the other. The increase last year in the eastern institutions was 320, in the western 554. The future growth of these universities will be a matter of interest. But it must be remembered that the greatness of a university is not measured by its size. The Johns Hopkins with 688 students has on its faculty thirty of our leading men of science; Illinois with 3,635 students has only six.
THE TOMB OF JAMES SMITHSON.
One of the last services of the late Professor Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was his share in the removal of the body of Smithson from Genoa to Washington, where it now lies in a mortuary chapel at the north end of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithson died at Genoa on June 27, 1829, and was buried in the little English cemetery on the heights of San Benigno. There was originally no reference on his tomb to his foundation of the Smithsonian Institution, but a tablet was erected some ten years ago by the regents, who also undertook the care of the grave. But it became necessary to move the cemetery, and Dr. A. Graham Bell proposed to bring the body of Smithson to America to rest in the great institution of which he was the founder. Dr. Bell offered to defray the expenses, but was commissioned by the regents to undertake this duty on their behalf. He immediately proceeded to Genoa, where he arrived on Christmas Day of 1903. With the cooperation of our consul, Dr. Bell was permitted to exhume the body and bring it with him to the United States, where it was received with naval and military honors. On March 6, 1905, the remains were replaced in the original tomb in the chapel of the Smithsonian Institution, where they will rest until congress makes provision for their interment.
The story of Smithson's life is this: The illegitimate son of the first Duke of Northumberland, he was a gentleman commoner at Pembroke College, Oxford, and was elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1786 at the age of twentyone. He made contributions to chemistry of some importance, but suffered from ill health and discouragement. He lived on the continent, and was at one time at least a Jacobinite, regarding a king as a 'contemptible encumbrance.' He left his fortune to his nephew with the provision that if he died without heirs it should go 'to the United States of America, to found at Washington under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.' The United
