Since the establishment of the Mary Fletcher Hospital the attendance of students has greatly increased and the number of those graduating more than doubled.

To accommodate the students the old college buildings had been from year to year enlarged, until in 1884 it became evident that an entirely new structure would be required. At this juncture the medical faculty were agreeably surprised to receive from Mr. John P. Howard the munificent gift of a new and commodious college building. This new structure, which had been so far completed as to accommodate the class that year, was elaborated and entirely finished in readiness for the session of 1885. The new structure is a substantial brick building, situated on Pearl street, on the north side of and immediately overlooking the college park. It is provided with an amphitheater capable of comfortably seating 350 students. The laboratories for practical chemistry and physiology and the dissecting room for practical anatomy are ample in size and supplied with every modern convenience that may contribute to the comfort of the student and facilitate his work.

The college museum is spacious, well lighted, and contains a large collection of carefully prepared specimens, many of them rare, illustrating alike normal and pathological structures. The entire edifice is heated by steam, thoroughly ventilated, and in all its appointments completely adapted to medical teaching.

Among the many magnificent and liberal gifts, amounting in the aggregate to nearly half a million dollars, which Mr. Howard has so generously bestowed upon the city of Burlington none will reflect more lasting praise or elicit more grateful acknowledgment than this much-needed and elaborate college building, erected for the promotion of medical education and dedicated to the advancement of medical science.

In order to render several courses of instruction as thorough as possible, the faculty have selected a number of medical gentlemen to lecture upon special subjects. Such parts of the regular course as are not taught in detail by the regular professors will thus receive special attention from gentlemen who are acknowledged authorities in their respective specialties, each one giving a short and practical course of lectures.

The plan of instruction adopted by this institution comprises a complete course of lectures upon the seven branches of medical science, viz, anatomy, physiology, chemistry, materia medica and therapeutics, surgery, obstetrics, and the theory and practice of medicine.

REQUIREMENTS FOR GRADUATION.

Students who have matriculated in this college prior to July 1, 1890, will be subject to the regulations and requirements for graduation as printed in the announcement for 1890.

Three full courses of lectures, of at least twenty weeks each, will be absolutely required of students who do not come under the above regulation, and no period of practice will be taken as an equivalent of

one course.

No candidate shall be admitted to an examination until all fees due the college from such candidate shall have been paid.

Candidates for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, before presenting themselves for examination, must have attended at least 3 full courses of lectures of twenty weeks duration each, the last at this college. The candidate must have studied medicine three years, must have attained the age of 21 years, and must present full certificates of the time of his study, of age, and of moral character. Each candidate is required to deposit his examination fee with the secretary of the medical faculty one month before the close of the session, and to furnish evidence of having pursued the study of practical anatomy under the direction of a demonstrator. He must also pass a satisfactory written or oral examination before the medical faculty and board of medical examiners appointed by the State Medical Society. No thesis is required.

Matriculation fee, payable each term

Fees for the full course of lectures by all the professors:

First and second year, each............

Third year and subsequent years, each......

AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.

$5.00

75.00

50.00

In 1862, largely through the exertions of Hon. Justin S. Morrill, then Representative and since Senator from Vermont, Congress passed an act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts. Under the provisions of this act the legislature of Vermont chartered, in 1862, the Vermont Agricultural College, which, failing to receive the support necessary to put it into operation, was, by an act approved November 6, 1865, incorporated with the Univer sity of Vermont into one institution by the name of "The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College." It is the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Vermont.

The university and agricultural college have each a board of 9 trustees, the members of the latter being chosen by the State legislature; and, according to an act of legislature, "all the trustees shall, together with his excellency the governor of the State and the president, who shall be ex-officio a member, constitute an entire board of trustees of the corporation hereby created, who shall have the entire management and control of its property and affairs, and in all things relating thereto, except in the elections to fill vacancies, shall act together jointly as one entire board of trustees; provided that all future elections or appointments to said board of trustees shall be made with special reference to preventing any religious denominational preponderance in

said board." The institution has, therefore, one board of trustees, one treasury and financial management, and one set of officers.1

At the time of the opening of this department it was found that there was a call from students for instruction in those sciences relating to the mechanical arts, and that there was no desire on the part of the young men of the State to receive instruction in agriculture pure and simple. As was natural, the university directed these forces toward the satisfying of the present demand, and the principal part of the instruction given under the head of agriculture and mechanical arts was for some years given in the course of engineering and of chemistry. The work in chemistry was broadened to include agricultural chemistry, with special reference to the problem of fertilization. In 1877 the university began its first purely agricultural work by a course of 50 lectures on veterinary medicine by Prof. Noah Cressy, one half delivered in Burlington and the other half at various places around the State in connection with the meeting of the Board of Agriculture and Dairymen's Association. About the same time Prof. W. O. Atwater, of Wesleyan University, conducted at the expense of the university an extended series of experiments throughout the State on fertilizers. From that time until the present, representatives of the university have attended the various meetings of the Board of Agriculture and Dairymen's Association, and the various farmers' clubs throughout the State.

In 1879 and 1880 the work throughout the State on fertilizers was continued and prizes were offered for the largest crops of corn and potatoes raised by farmers' boys. In 1881 an analysis of commercial fertilizers sold in the State was made a part of the work of the professor of chemistry, and in 1885 the first purely agricultural instruction at the university was given by the professor of chemistry on the subject of fertilization of crops," there being 18 students in attendance.

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1 It should be understood that the legislature has no power over the charter of the institution. A clause in a proposed charter making it amendable and repealable by the legislature caused the rejection of that charter by the university, and was left out of the present charter. The legislature can not revoke or alter the grants made in the charter to the institution without its consent. In case the corporation “shall fail substantially to carry out the provisions and requirements" of the charter, the supreme court of this State may, by a legal process which has been set forth by an act of the legislature, annul and vacate the charter and separate the institution into the two parts of which it was originally composed. But the legislature has virtual control over the institution through the power it has of electing one-half the board of trustees and of appointing a board of visitors who may "examine the affairs of said corporation." This last-mentioned power the legislature has never exercised. It is worth considering whether the appointment of such a board of visitors, made up of men representing "the several pursuits and professions of life," who should periodically visit the institution and make careful and intelligent examination of its affairs and report thereon to the legislature, would not prove helpful to the institution and to all the interests concerned.