B.-FRENCH.

In French the work of the past year has shown a marked improve. ment in results attained. The courses are now so correlated that a student in the allotted time can get a fairly comprehensive view of the language from all sides. As a result of this fact greater interest in the subject seems to be displayed, and a desire to be proficient marks the endeavors of nearly every member of the classes. No one line of procedure is maintained long enough to become monotonGrammar is insisted on only so long as is absolutely necessary, translation being considered the surest channel by which the end in view may be reached. The mind of the student is in this way kept constantly on the alert, and his attention held throughout the

ous.

course.

The work of the first term is of necessity very elementary, grammar being the principal subject pursued. Because of insufficient knowledge of the rudiments of the mother tongue, the advance is considerably hampered, and familiarity obtained only through long, wearisome and, at times, almost needles repetition. French has erroneously been regarded as a study requiring but little labor in the mastery. In that the English and French are kin, in many forms and features such is the case. On the other hand, however, because of its idiomatic peculiarities and elasticity of expression, few languages demand more devoted and lasting attention in their pursuit, or repay more richly the energy thus expended.

Translation is made as soon as practicable the basis for the work. Sight reading is daily resorted to, as one of the most advantageous methods of procedure. Drill in irregular verbs, the great bugbear of the language, is begun early and continued until their intricacies are thoroughly mastered. Constant practice at the blackboard in writing sight sentences and illustrative idioms gives facility in rapid translation. Frequent dictation also offers an invaluable training for the ear and an opportunity for incessant grammatical review.

Work throughout the freshman year is modeled after this term. As the grammar is mastered, more attention is paid to translation, while composition, including both isolated sentences and continued narrative, is in constant use. The student from the first is taught to pronounce the original and to seek to fathom its meaning before changing. This presents many obstacles, French being a peculiarly elusive tongue for a foreigner to acquire. To obviate these the work

in the class room is, as far as possible, carried on in the language studied.

In the sophomore year the Fall Term is devoted to the study of historical selections, the aim being to familiarize the student with historical vocabulary and style. Dictation and syntactical review are also made a part of the daily routine. Sight translation plays its role here, as previously. In the Winter Term, the scientific side of the language is emphasized, selections from every field of scientific research being carefully read, while the peculiarities of expression are noted and adequately explained. Now the composition takes an intensely practical turn, through drill in writing business letters and forms of every kind to be met within every-day life. By means of lectures a brief summary of the literature is also presented and studied. With the Spring Term the literary side assumes prominence, and from this time on the endeavor is to acquaint the class with some of the masterpieces of the brilliant minds, especially of the nineteenth century, which have made France famous.

It is to be hoped that a change in the curriculum will be made by which the student in the Latin scientific course may pursue his work in this study uninterruptedly. As it is now, he loses the Fall Term, sophomore, drill, which it is practically impossible to make up satisfactorily.

With the acquisition of foreign territory, formerly Spanish, has come into the college world a greatly increased demand for instruction in the language of Castile. This institution, with the rest, has felt its influence, and as a result a flourishing class has been formed for the study of the subject. Great interest is shown, every one devoting himself heartily to the tongue of the new-found El Dorado. Facility in reading is the chief purpose, though conversation is to be worked in as much as possible. The time set apart for this is far too brief to allow other than a very superficial treatment of this rich and expressive language. The day is soon coming, we feel, when the Spanish will have its place side by side with the English in the curriculum of every school in the land, and preparation for the inevitable must be made.

Respectfully submitted,

IRVING L. FOSTER, Instructor in the Romance Languages.

State College, Pa., June 15, 1899.

XVI.-PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

To the President:

I have the honor to present to you the report of the Department of Physical Education for the year 1898.

As stated in my last report, we are excessively handicapped in our efforts by a great deficiency in both apparatus and sufficient and suitable room in-doors, and, out of doors, by the wretched and unsafe condition of the athletc field. A few of the more imperative necessities we have been able to meet, but the great majority are still to come, we hope.

The number of students who have made use of what we are able to supply them is a great excess over past years, and the limit of the Department has at times been severely stretched to give these all they required. Every effort has been made to harmonize the work of the two departments, military and physical, that all students may obtain the great good in each. How successful this plan may prove remains to be seen, for it is still in its infancy, but it gives every promise of fulfilling a great need.

A reiteration of the wants of the Department is unnecessary, since they appear in a former report; but one may safely say that they have not grown the less for the twelve months which have passed since they were placed before you.

Here, as in every similar institution in the land, is a woeful lack of realization among the students themselves of the benefits accruing from regular and conscientious exercise, and the life-long injury they are inflicting upon themselves by persistently abstaining from it. To the majority exercise is work, and as such is avoided, if voluntary, and complained of if compulsory. While there is much truth in their statements that their hours are so thoroughly filled already with college work that they cannot afford the time to go into the gymnasium, yet there are always hours in the daily routine of every man far less profitably spent, and which could well be given to exercise. To make them see it is the difficulty.

To the mind of the student, and of the average man, education merely means study, with the retention and subsequent application of the precepts learned. It is this misconception of the true education, which is the simultaneous development of the physical and mental toward the perfection of both, that is our stumbling block, and which tends to lead them to ignore the concomitancy of the two systems, to disregard the close relations of their two entities and their

real oneness, and which leads them continually to sacrific the one for the benefit of the other. Man is a perfect unit, and the balance is most delicate between his two natures. Use of the one and neglect of the other disturbs this relation and reacts again upon both. Life and health are maintained by nature by simple processes, and she makes very simple contrivances serve her in her work. Air, food, sleep and exercise are her tools, and the intelligent use of these are our safeguards.

The strong man is a worker, a thinker; the weak one's natural powers are invalided. Opponents of physical training quote to us, in defence of their position, scores of men, great men, who have been weaklings, but fail to appreciate how much faster and farther these vast brains would have gone had their owners not been physical wrecks, bodily infants. Isolated, almost perfect, specimens of men are pointed out for us, and we are told that they have never exercised. These men have merely become strong in spite of their total disregard of the laws of nature, and prove nothing. As I have said, man is a unit, an engine, if you will, of most complex design and perfection of adjustment, and his power to do work, his brain-pounds, must come from somewhere. Where are his heat and his steam to come from, if not from his physical self, his boiler and furnace? The muscular system alone contributes nearly four-fifths of that heat necessary for the nutrition of the body, and for the generation of the energy imperative for the proper working of the complex nervous organism, or engine. Study for a moment the phenomenon of muscular contraction, and little is left for explanation. By this process heat is generated, by the oxydation of the tissues themselves. There must, therefore, be a continual supply of oxygen, and a permanent scavenger to bear away the waste material. There is such an agent, since the blood performs these two functions, and it is its iron which carries the oxygen. A comparative study of the blood of students in this institution has conclusively proven that continued exercise increases this iron from five to ten per cent. Increased muscular activity demands more oxygen; more oxygen, more blood and better blood; increased heart action gives more blood, and careful study has shown that exercise gives better blood. This increased heart action promotes blood circulation, not locally but generally, and we have a thorough cleansing and wakening up of every organ in the body, heart, lungs and digestive tract which supply force, and skin and kidneys, together with the lungs ridding the system of effete matter. Nature, then, gave us an engine, and with it a boiler and furnace, large enough properly to use every portion of the machinery, and the illness or health of one reacts upon the other. The question for solution is merely to maintain the original equi

librium, the normal tone, and how shall it be done? By simply calling into action the muscles.

From this brief study of the relations of muscular and physical processes it is most evident that man as a whole, in every organ, is af fected by his physical condition, and that his entire organism must be freed from all remediable evils, must be put into sound condition to keep up not only bodily strength, speed, quickness, etc., but thought, ideas, imagination and the thousands of impulses originating in the brain and conveyed by the nerves to well trained muscles. Thus the importance and imperative necessity for physical training, and it is our hope that improved conditions here will bring forth increased enthusiasm for the work with greater results than in the past.

Sincerely yours,

S. B. NEWTON, M. D.,
Director.

State College, Pa., June 1, 1899.