connection with the annual meeting of the State Teachers' Association at Columbus, next July, with a view to a permanent organization. A resolution was adopted expressive of strong gratification in the adoption of any proper measures that may result in harmonizing the courses of study in our colleges and high schools. Also, a resolution appointing a committee for the purpose of further investigation, and for conference with the State Commissioner with reference to an adjustment of the college and high school courses of study, with instructions to call another meeting whenever it shall seem to them desirable. Presidents Merrick, Fairchild, and Andrews compose this committee. A. NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION.* To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: At a meeting of the National Association of State and City School Superintendents, recently held in the city of Washington, D. C., the undersigned were appointed a committee to memorialize Congress for the establishment of a national bureau of education. It was the unanimous opinion of the association that the interests of education would be greatly promoted by the organization of such a bureau at the present time; that it would render needed assistance in the establishment of school systems where they do not now exist, and that it would also prove a potent means for improving and vitalizing existing systems. This it could accomplish 1. By securing greater uniformity and accuracy in school statistics, and so interpreting them that they may be more widely available and reliable as educational tests and measures. 2. By bringing together the results of school systems in different communities, States, and countries, and determining their comparative value. * A Memorial of the National Association of State and City School Superintendents, asking for the establishment of a National Bureau of Education, presented to Congress Feb. 14, 1866. A bill embodying substantially the recommendations of this memorial, was passed by the House of Representatives, June 19th, 1866, and will doubtless be acted upon by the Senate at its present session. The measure has the approval of the leading educators of the country.-ED. MONTHLY. 3. By collecting the results of all important experiments in new and special methods of school instruction and management, and making them the common property of school officers and teachers throughout the country. 4. By diffusing among the people information respecting the school laws of the different States, the various modes of providing and disbursing school funds, the different classes of school officers and their relative duties, the qualifications required of teachers, the modes of their examination, and the agencies provided for their special training, the best methods of classifying and grading schools, improved plans for school-houses, together with modes of heating and ventilation, etc.-information now obtained. only by a few persons, and at great expense, but which is of the highest value to all intrusted with the management of schools. 5. By aiding communities and States in the organization of school systems, in which mischievous errors shall be avoided, and vital agencies and well-tried improvements be included. 6. By the general diffusion of correct ideas respecting the value of education as a quickener of intellectual activities, as a moral renovator, as a multiplier of industry, and a consequent producer of wealth, and, finally, as the strength and shield of civil liberty. In the opinion of your memorialists, it is not possible to measure the influence which the faithful performance of these duties by a national bureau would exert upon the cause of education throughout the country, and few persons who have not been intrusted with the management of school systems can fully realize how wide-spread and urgent is the demand for such assistance. Indeed, the very existence of the association which your memorialists represent is, itself, positive proof of a demand for a national channel of communication between the school officers of the different States. Millions of dollars have been thrown away in fruitless experiments or in stolid plodding for the want of it. Your memorialists would also submit that the assistance and encouragement of the general government are needed to secure the adoption of school systems throughout the country. An ignorant people have no inward impulse to lead them to self-education. Just where education is most needed, there it is always least appreciated and valued. It is, indeed, a law of educational progress that its impulse and stimulus come from without. Hence it is that Adam Smith and other writers on political economy expressly except education from the operation of the general law of supply and demand. They teach correctly that the demand for education must be awakened by external influences and agencies. This law is illustrated by the fact that entire school systems, both in this and in other countries, have been lifted up, as it were bodily, by just such influences as a national bureau of education would exert upon the schools of the several States; and this, too, without its being invested with any official control of the school authorities therein. Indeed, the highest value of such a bureau would be its quickening and informing influence, rather than its authoritative and directive control. The true function of such a bureau is not to direct officially in the school affairs in the States, but rather to coöperate with and assist them in the great work of establishing and maintaining systems of public instruction. All experience teaches that the nearer the responsibility of supporting and directing schools is brought to those immediately benefited by them, the greater their vital power and efficiency. Your memorialists beg permission to suggest one other special duty which should be intrusted to the national bureau, and which of itself will justify its creation, viz: An investigation of the management and results of the frequent munificent grants of land made by Congress for the promotion of general and special education. It is estimated that these grants, if they had been properly managed, would now present an aggregate educational fund of about five hundred millions of dollars. If your memorialists are not misinformed, Congress has no official information whatever respecting the manner in which these trusts have been managed. In conclusion, your, memorialists beg leave to express their earnest belief that universal education, next to universal liberty, is a matter of deep national concern. Our experiment of republican institutions is not upon the scale of a petty municipality or State, but it covers half a continent, and embraces peoples of widely diverse interests and conditions, but who are to continue "one and inseparable." Every condition of our perpetuity and progress as a nation adds emphasis to the remark of Montesquieu, that "it is in a republican government that the whole power of education is required." It is an imperative necessity of the American Republic that the common school be planted on every square mile of its peopled territory, and that the instruction therein imparted be carried to the highest point of efficiency. The creation of a bureau of education by Congress would be a practical recognition of this great truth. It would impart to the cause of uni versal education a dignity and importance which would surely widen its influence and enhance its success. All of which is most respectfully submitted. E. E. WHITE, State Commissioner of Common Schools of Ohio. State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Illinois. Secretary of State Board of Education of Vermont. WASHINGTON, D. C., February 10, 1866. NOTES: ORTHOEPICAL, ORTHOGRAPHICAL, ETYMOLOGICAL, AND SYNTACTICAL.-No. 7. BY W. D. HENKLE, SALEM, OHIO. 37. Olmsted. This proper name often appears in catalogues with the incorrect spelling Olmstead. I have the authority of the late Prof. Olmsted himself, in the signature of letters received from him, for saying that he spelled his name Olmsted. 38. Herschel. This proper name is very often incorrectly printed Herschell. 39. Iliad. Occasionally we see this word printed Illiad. See a recent circular issued by Ingham & Bragg, of Cleveland. 40. Catiline. Sometimes incorrectly printed Cataline. 41. Female. I have received the following protest from a correspondent against my comments on this word. He says: "If we have any phrases which have stood the test of centuries of usage, and have become known the world over as pure, modest English, such phrases as Female Teachers,' Female Education,' 'Female Mind,' Female Form,' Celebrated Females,' Female Sovereigns,' Female Writers,' 'Female Poets,' 'Female Friends,' etc., are certainly among them." เ Worcester defines female when used as a noun, "One of the sex that brings forth young," and quotes from Leviticus iii: 1, "If he offer it of the herd, whether it be a male or female"; as an adjective he defines it, "Pertaining to the sex which conceives and brings forth young; not male," and quotes from Milton, “The female bee, that feeds her husband drone." Webster defines it when used as a noun, "An individual of the sex among animals which conceives and brings forth young," and quotes from Drayton, "The male and female of each living thing"; as an adjective he defines it, "1. Belonging to the sex which conceives and gives birth to young; not male. 2. Belonging to an individual of the female sex; characteristic of the sex, or of woman; feminine," and quotes from Shakspeare— "As patient as the female dove When her golden couplets are disclosed." and from Milton, "Female usurpation." In all the examples but one in the list given by my correspondent, the word female is an adjective. The objectionable use of the word is mainly confined to it when used as a noun. "Celebrated females" is a generic expression, and is proper enough if female is used in its full sense. Flora Temple properly belongs to the class "celebrated females." To say "celebrated females " when we mean only celebrated women, is certainly not in good taste. I think it would be difficult to find many instances in the writings of good authors in which female is used instead of woman. I have noticed but one instance, which is found in Pope's Translation of the Odyssey, book xxii: แ 'Now to dispose the dead, the care remains Female is extensively and properly used as an adjective, but some of the phrases in which it is used would be improved by a change. "Female teachers" is correct, but "lady teachers" is more specific. The specific expression "young ladies' seminary" is certainly better than the generic one "female seminary." I leave it to the good taste of any teacher to decide whether the list of pupils on his roll should be headed "Males" and "Females or "Boys" and "Girls." For good illustrations of the correct use of the words male and female, see Sir William Hamilton's account of his craniological investigations entered upon to test the truth of the claims set up by phrenologists. 42. Houyhnhnms. Swift in his "Travels of Lenuel Gulliver " gives this as the name of a breed of horses endowed with reason. John Stuart Mill uses the word in his Logic, p. 21, but spells it Houyhnhms." Pope says: "Nay would kind Jove my organs so dispose To hymn harmonious Houyhnhnms through the nose, |