 | Catalogue of the officers and students of the University of Virginia |  |
REGULATIONS, &c.
MATRICULATION.
To be admitted into the University, the student must he
sixteen years of age; but the Faculty are authorised to dispense
with this requisition in the case of application for admission
by two brothers, one of whom is under the age of
sixteen.
If the applicant for admission has been a student at any
other incorporated seminary, he cannot be received, but on
producing a certificate from such seminary, or other satisfactory
evidence to the Faculty, with respect to his general
good conduct.
Every student is free to attend the schools of his choice, and
no other than he chooses; provided, that if under the age of
twenty-one, he shall attend at least three professors, unless
he has the written authority of his parent or guardian, or the
Faculty shall for good cause shewn allow him, to attend less
than three. The qualifications of the student to enter the
Schools of Antient Languages, Mathematics, and Natural
Philosophy, are tested by previous examinations.
Before a student matriculates, he is furnished with a copy
of the laws, which he is required to read. On matriculating,
he signs a written declaration, that he will conform to those
laws, and, if he be a resident student, that he has deposited
with the Patron all the funds in his possession.
COURSE OF INSTRUCTION.
In each school, there are three regular lectures a week; besides
which, there are in most of them extra lectures suited to
of instruction is by text-books and lectures, accompanied by
rigid examinations. The course pursued in each school, is as
follows. ______________
1.—ANTIENT LANGUAGES.
Professor Harrison.—In this school are taught the Latin
and Greek Languages, and Literature, and the Hebrew Language.
The instruction, given by prelections and examinations,
comprises the following subjects:
1. The formation and composition of words and the principles
which govern them.
2. The primary and secondary significations of words and
the principles by which they must be ascertained.
3. The structure of the language, as intimately connected
with the formation of words, particularly as relates to
their terminations, and taught in connexion with it; with constant
attention to the order and arrangement, no less than to
the other idioms of the language.
4. Metres and quantity.
The text-books used, are, in the Latin class:—Horace,
Juvenal, Cicero's Epistels `ad Diversos,' Tacitus, Virgil, and
Terence; Zumpt's Latin Grammar is recommended, and
Carey's Latin Prosody.
In the Junior Greek class:—Xenophon's Anabasis, a play
of Æschylus or Euripides, and a book of Herodotus.
In the Senior Greek class:—Herodotus, Euripides, Sophocles,
Thucydides and Homer; Donnegan's Greek and English
Lexicon, Buttmann's Greek Grammar, translated, and
Thiersch's Greek Tables, by Patton, are recommended.
In Hebrew; Biblia Hebraica, Edit: Van Der Hooght, by
D'Allemand, London 1825. Stuart's Hebrew Grammar, 3rd
Edition, Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon, translated by Gibbs.
Extra lectures are given to the Latin and Greek classes,
for the purpose of explaining such authors as cannot well be
read in the lecture room, or of farther studying those there
read:—e. g. Cicero's Orations, Terence, Plautus, Livy, &c.
Xenophon's Anabasis, Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes,
Demosthenes, &c.
It is expected of the students to read, besides, in their
rooms, a list of authors, and parts of authors, furnished by the
Professor.
The Greek and Roman History and Geography are taught
principles of historical criticism and direct the attention of
the student to the more important points, rather than give
details which may be learned from the books pointed out.
As an essential part of the course, the sudents of each class
are required to furnish regularly, once a week, a written exercise,
which consists in the conversion of Latin or Greek into
English, and of English into Latin or Greek. The exercises are
examined by the Professor and the errors marked: thus corrected,
they are returned to the students, and the corrections
stated and enforced in the presence of the class. For these
exercises, the classic authors are used as the text, and not a
book of exercises. The blackboard is continually used for
the purpose of assisting the student, by the aid of the eye,
in comprehending and retaining the illustrations given.
2.—MODERN LANGUAGES.
Professor Blættermann.—The languages taught in this
school, are the French, Spanish, Italian, German and Anglo-Saxon;—and
if desired, will also be taught, the Danish,
Swedish, Hollandish and Portuguese Languages. In a part of
them there are two classes, of which the senior is taught by
the Professor, and the junior by the Tutor of the school. Besides
the oral translations in the lecture room, the students
are required to write as regular exercises, translations from
the foreign language into English, and vice versa. Lectures
on the Literature of each of the nations whose Languages are
taught, are delivered twice a week, by the Professor, as also
lectures on Modern History, and the political relations of the
different civilized nations of the present day. The text-books
used are the principal classics in each language.
3.—MATHEMATICS.
Professor Bonnycastle.—In this school there are commonly
five classes. Of these, the first junior begins with Arithmetic;
but as the student is required to have some knowledge
of it when he enters the University, the lectures of the
Professor are limited to the theory, shewing the method of
naming numbers, the different scales of notation, and the derivation
of the several rules of Arithmetic from our primary
one by one. These are dwelt upon, at some length and serve
as the first links of a chain which conducts to the most refined
analysis.—Lacroix's Arithmetic is the text-book.
In Algebra, the first problems are analyzed with and
without the use of letters, to make the student sensible of the
advantages of these signs. In teaching the rules for adding,
subtracting, &c., they are compared with the correspondent
rules in Arithmetic, and the agreement or diversity is
noticed and explained. The text-book is Lacroix's Algebra.
In Geometry, Legendre is the text-book.
The second junior class, continuing Algebra, and Geometry,
proceed to Trigonometry and its practical applications;
the text-book is Lacroix. Their subsequent course is as follows:
spherical Trigonometry, and its application to practical and
nautical Astronomy, and to the projection and construction of
maps, analytical Geometry, and the first part of the Differential
Calculus; the text-book for which is Bourcharlat. The textbook
for the other subjects are the Professor's manuscript lectures,
with Bonnycastle's Trigonometry for the applications.
The senior classes continue the Differential Calculus, taking
the text partly from Bourcharlat and Lagrange, and partly
from manuscript lectures; and working examples selected from
Peacock and Herschell. The same course is afterwards continued
with the Integral Calculus; which is pursued somewhat
further than is done by Bourcharlat, completes the course of
common Mathematics.
There is, moreover, a class of mixed Mathematics for such
of the more advanced students as choose to pursue it; which
consists of parts of Venturoli's Mechanics, the first book of Laplace's
Mecanique Celeste, and of the applications of the principles
there given to various problems.
At the commencement of the next session it is intended to
make a partial change in the course by substituting for Legendre's
Geometry, the Cambridge Trigonometry, and the
manuscript analytical Geometry above mentioned, a treatise
of Inductive Geometry embracing all these subjects, and commencing
with an enquiry into the nature of elementary figures,
illustrated by models.
4.—NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.
Professor Patterson.—The course of lectures in this
written examination of the students. The first part treats of
the properties of ponderable bodies, and includes Statics, Dynamics,
Hydrostatics, Hydrodynamics, Pneumatics, Crystallization,
Molecular and Capillary Attraction, Strength and
Stress of Materials, and Acoustics. The second part comprises
Heat, (including Meteorology and the Steam-engine,)
Electricity and Galvanism, Magnetism and Electro Magnetism,
Optics, Astronomy.
The text-book hitherto used is Cavallo's Natural Philosophy;
but it is intended to introduce, at the next session,
Lardner and Kater's Mechanics, Lardner's Hydrostatics and
Pneumatics, Brewster's Optics, and the Treatises on Heat,
Electricity, Galvanism, Magnetism, and Electro Magnetism,
in the Library of Useful Knowledge.
As the enactments require only an acquaintance with arithmetic
in order to enter this school, mathematical demonstrations,
though not avoided by the Professor, are not required
of the students of the general class. But the candidates
for graduation form a separate class, and are taught
the applications of elementary mathematics, (Algebra, Geometry,
and Trigonometry,) to Natural Philosophy. The application
of the higher calculus belongs to the school of Mathematics.
The apparatus provided for the school of Natural Philosophy
is very extensive and complete, and thus enables the
Professor to illustrate every part of his course by experiments
in the presence of his class. An Observatory, with its appropriate
astronomical instruments, is also attached to this
school.
5.—CHEMISTRY AND MATERIA MEDICA.
Professor Emmet.—There are two classes in this school;
one of Chemistry, to which there are lectures given twice
a week, and the other of Materia Medica and Pharmacy, to
which is given a lecture once a week throughout the session.
In the Chemical lectures, all the important applications of
the science to the mechanic arts, agriculture and domestic
economy are noticed, and, when practicable, illustrated by experiment.
In the lectures on earths and metals the appropriate
minerals are exhibited and noticed with reference to
the sciences of Mineralogy and Geology. At the close of the
history of inorganic matter, the atomic theory and the laws
The latter part of the course is occupied with the chemistry
of organic substances, and it comprises the history, analysis
and properties of each substance; to which are added
general views of the connexion between Chemistry and the
physiology of animals and vegetables.
In the lectures on Materia Medica and Pharmacy, the subjects
are treated in the following order:—The operations of
Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical preparations, the effects which the
combining of different substances has on their medicinal properties,
the different classifications of the Materia Medica, and
lastly, its several articles treated alphabetically.
There is attached to this school, a very extensive apparatus
and a laboratory, in which the students are occasionally permitted
to see the operations and to perform experiments.—A
free use is made of the black-board in these as in almost all
the other classes in the University.
6.—MEDICINE.
Professor Dunglison.—The subjects taught in this school
are Physiology, Pathology, Therapeutics, Obstetrics and Medical
Jurisprudence. The latter forms a distinct class, and
comprehends other students in addition to those of Medicine.
In this school, in common with those of Natural Philosophy and
Chemistry, the examinations of the class are generally postponed
until after the lecture, but with this difference in the school of
Medicine, that the examination is of the last lecture but one;
so that with the lecture of that day and the recapitulation of
the preceding lecture, the prominent topics are presented three
times to the student, or what is the same thing, the substance
of three lectures is presented to him in one day. Dunglison's
Human Physiology is the text-book on that subject; in Pathology
and the practice of Medicine, Eberle, Good, or Gregory
is recommended; in Obstetrics, Burns or Dewees or
Gooch; and in Medical Jurisprudence, Beck or Ryan, and
the Professor's Syllabus.
7.—ANATOMY AND SURGERY.
Professor Johnson.—In Anatomy, the lectures are delivered
from subjects, with which the school is regularly supplied.
text-book is Cooper's First Lines. This and the two preceding
schools constitute the Medical Department of the University;
and candidates for the degree of "Doctor of Medicine" must
pass examination in them all. An extensive Museum is attached
to this department. It possesses one advantage, at
least, over the other Medical schools in the United States, in
having a session of more than ten months, instead of one of
about four.
8.—MORAL PHILOSOPHY.
Professor Tucker.—There are two classes in this school.
The junior class studies Rhetoric, Belles-Lettres and Logic,
the first half of the session, and Belles-Lettres and Ethics,
the last half. The senior, studies Mental Philosophy, the first
part of the session, and Political Economy the last. The examinations
are on the Professor's lectures and the following
books:—In Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres, Blair, Campbell and
Lord Kaim's Elements; in Ethics, Stewart's Active and
Moral Powers; in Metaphysics, Brown, Stewart and Locke;
in Political Economy, Say and Adam Smith. In discussing
the controverted questions in the last mentioned science, all
the ablest writers, both of Europe and America, are referred
to. The students in this school are required to exercise themselves
in composition.
9.—LAW.
Professor Davis.—In this school are taught the Law
Nature and Nations, the Science of Government, Constitutional
Law, the Common and Statute Law, Equity and Maritime
and Commercial Law.
The school is divided into two classes. The text-books
studied by the junior class, are Vattel's Law of Nature and
Nations, the Federalist, the Virginia Report of '99, and
Blackstone's Commentaries. Those studied by the senior,
are Coke upon Littleton, (Thomas's edition,) Stephen on
Pleading, Starkie on Evidence, (the first vol.) Toller on Executors,
Chitty on Contracts, Bayley on Bills, Fonblanque's
Equity and Mitford's Pleadings; to which it is proposed to
add a treatise on Commercial and Maritime Law.
On these books, prelections are delivered by the Professor,
in which it is his object to supply what is deficient and explain
what is obscure in the text, to refer in connection with
it to the leading cases and authorities, American and English,
illustrative of the topic under consideration, and generally, to
offer such comments as he deems necessary to its thorough
understanding. In these prelections, the statute law of
Virginia and the United Stats, and its effects on the pre-existing
law, are particularly explained. Each prelection is
preceded by an examination on the last together with its text.
On Government, and on various topics of national, constitutional
and municipal law, not discussed in the text-books.
ectures are delivered; on which, also, the class are examined.
Students not wishing to study Municipal Law, can enter
for that portion only of the junior course which embraces National
Law, Government and Constitutional Law; which poriton,
those wishing to study Municipal Law only, can if they
choose omit.
The students of this school have recently instituted a Law
Society, at the meetings of which the Professor presides. In
it, questions connected with the studies of the school are discussed,
fictitious cases litigated in the form of regular pleadings
and the issues produced decided in the appropriate mode,
and the members exercised in conveyancing by having to prepare
and submit to the Society the necessary deeds to effectuate
supposed agreements, &c.
Religious exercises are performed at the University every
Sunday, by a Minister of the Gospel, residing there, whose
services are rendered on the private invitation of the Profesors,
Officers, and Students.
EXAMINATIONS.
There are two public examinations of all the students,
each session; the one at such convenient time about the middle
of the session as the Faculty shall appoint, the other at
the close the session.
These are thus conducted. The professor of the school
prepares, in writing, a series of questions to be proposed to his
class, and affixes to them numerical values, acording to his
estimate of their relative difficulty. On the assembling of the
class for examination, these questions are for the first time
presented to them; and they are required to answer them in
writing, in a prescribed time, without communication with
one another or with other persons, and without any reference
to books. Their answers are subsequently carefully examined
and compared, and a value attached to each, not exceeding
that of the corresponding question. In the schools
of languages, subjects may also be selected for oral examination,
and the values of these exercises are marked at the time.
The students are then arranged into four divisions, according
to the merit of their examinations, as determined by the
following method. The numerical values attached to all the
questions are added together, and also the values of the answers
given by each student. If this last number exceeds
three-fourths of the first, the student is ranked in the first division;
if it be less than three-fourths and more than one-half,
in the second; if less than one half and more than a fourth, in
the third; if less than a fourth, in the fourth division.—The
examinations are conducted and the results ascertained by a
committee, consisting of the professor of the school and two
other professors.
The standing of each student at the examinations is communicated
to his parent or guardian. And the names of those
who are in the first divisions are announced on the public
day at the close of the session, and published in one more of
the newspapers of the State.
DEGREES.
Three honorary distinctions are conferred in this Institution;
a certificate of proficiency—that of graduate in any school—and
that of Master of Arts of the University of Virginia.
The first, the Faculty may confer on any student who shall,
on examination, give satisfactory evidence of a competent acquaintance
with any of those particular branches which, according
to the regulations, may be separately attended in a
school. The second, they are authorised to confer on any
student who shall, on examination, give satisfactory evidence
of his proficiency in the general studies of any of the schools.
Languages, Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry,
and Moral Philosophy. But in all cases, to obtain a diploma,
or a certificate of proficiency, the candidate must give
the Faculty satisfactory proof of his ability to write the
English language correctly.
No particular period of study is prescribed for the acquisition
of these honors. The student obtains them whenever he
can undergo the rigid examinations to which the candidates
for them are subjected.
The title of Doctor of Medicine is conferred on the graduate
in the Medical Department.
On the last day of the session, the Visitors, Faculty, Officers
and Students, assemble in the Rotunda, and the public are
invited to attend. On this occasion, the certificates and diplomas
are awarded to the successful candidates, the results of
the examinations are announced, and orations are delivered
and essays read by Students appointed for that purpose.
EXPENSES, &c.
The expenses for the session of upwards of ten months.
(commencing the 10th of September, and ending the 20th of
July following,) are as follows:—
| Board, including bed and other room furniture, washing and attendance |
$100 |
| Fuel and candles, to be furnished by the Proctor, at cost, and 5 per cent commission estimated, if only one student in the dormitory at $30,—if two students in the dormitory at |
15 |
| Rent of an entire dormitory $16; for half, if occupied by two students |
8 |
| Use of the library and public rooms | 15 |
| Fees—if one professor be attended $50; if two, each $30; if more than two, each $25 |
75 |
| Total (exclusive of books and stationary, clothing and pocket-money) |
$213 |
Boarding-houses are provided within the precincts for the
accommodation of students; and no student is permitted to
board or lodge out of the precincts, unless in the family of his
parent or guardian, or of some particular friend approved by
years, may reside out of the precincts, in such private boarding-houses
as the Faculty may approve.
Every student resident within the precincts is required, on
matriculating, to deposit with the Patron, all the money,
checks, bills, drafts, and other available funds, which he shall
have in his possession, or under his control, in any manner
intended to defray his expenses while at the University, or on
his return from thence to his residence. Nor shall he matriculate,
till he shall have deposited a sum at least sufficient,
after deducting the Patron's commission, (two per cent.) to pay
for the use of his dormitory and the public rooms, to pay the
fees of the professors whom he may design to attend, to pay
three months' board to his hotel-keeper, and to purchase the
text-books and stationary which he may want at the commencement;
and ten dollars to cover contingent charges and
assessments against him for injuries to the buildings, &c. In
like manner, he shall deposit with the Patron all the funds
which he shall receive while a student of the University, for
the purposes aforesaid. At the end of the first three months
of the session, he shall deposit enough to pay his board and
other expenses for the next three months; and at the expiration
of the second period of three months, he shall deposit
enough to pay his board and other expenses for the residue of
the session.
Students resident out of the University are required, on
matriculating, to deposit with the Patron funds sufficient,
after deducting the Patron's commission, to pay the fees of the
professors whom they propose to attend, the sum charged for
the use of the public rooms, and ten dollars to cover contingent
charges.
The expenses of the students resident in the University, are
limited as follows:—for board, the use of dormitory and public
rooms, and tuition fees, the sums before stated; for clothing
during the session, a sum not exceeding a hundred dollars;
for pocket money during the session, not exceeding forty
dollars; for books and stationary, whatever the parent or
guardian may think fit to allow; for medicine and medical
attendance whatever may be necessary. These limits are in
no case to be exceeded, unless under special circumstances,
the Faculty shall allow it. Resident students are forbidden
to contract any debts whatsoever; but for every thing purchased,
they are forthwith to pay, or to draw upon a fund in
the hands of the Patron applicable thereto.
Students, wherever resident, are required to wear the
a dark gray mixture, at a price not exceeding six dollars a
yard.
At the end of every month, a circular is addressed by the
Chairman of the Faculty to the parent or guardian of each
student, in which are stated his absences from the lectures
he was bound to attend, and other irregularities of which
he may have been guilty, that month; together with such information
as to the student's progress and conduct as it may
be deemed proper to communicate.
There are in the University, teachers of Elocution, Music,
Fencing and Dancing, authorised by the Faculty to give instruction
in those accomplishments to such students as wish
to acquire them.
A military corps has been formed by the students, and an
instructor appointed, for the purpose of learning military
tactics. One afternoon in the week is devoted to these exercises;
but it is at the option of the student whether he will
engage in them.
| Catalogue of the officers and students of the University of Virginia | |