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and parlor cars. These accommodations are furnished, in some cases, by the railroad companies, and in others by outside corporations, which are not supposed to be embraced by the terms of the law. Outside companies are also to some extent engaged in the transportation of livestock in cars owned by themselves, but transported over the railroads under special agreements with the railroad companies which supply the motive-power. As these last named companies furnish better accommodations for live stock, and transport them with less liability to injury, and with less shrinkage than is done in the ordinary stock-car, it is not improbable that they, like the companies which furnish special accommodations for passengers, may in time build up a large business in respect to which they will not be controlled by any existing legislation.

“It is well known, also, that the transportation of mineral oil is already, to a very large extent, in tank-cars owned by parties who are not carriers subject to regulation under the act to regulate commerce.

“If it is the will of Congress that all transportation of persons and property by rail should come under the same rules of general right and equity, some further designation of the agencies in transportation which shall be controlled by such rules would seem to be indispensable.”


In the Annual Report[1] for 1886–87, President Eliot says of the Law School: “The number of students being large, the expenditures for instruction, Library and Reading-room service, and repairs and improvements were increased, and yet a satisfactory surplus remained at the end of the year. The admission examination tends to keep uneducated persons out of the School, and admits to the regular course every year a few men without collegiate training, among whom are sometimes found very successful students; but the number of persons who have gained access to the degree through that examination has been only about nine a year on the average since the examination was instituted in 1877.”


Professor Langdell, in his report, gives an interesting account of the growth of the School in the last few years:—

“It is now just ten years since the three-years’ course and the examination for admission went into operation. . . . By 1882–83, the three-years’ course and the examination for admission, regarded as causes which diminished the size of the School, had spent their force, and henceforth an improvement is perceptible. Thus, in 1883–84, though the number of new entries was only eighty-six, an increase of two, the number of names on the catalogue was one hundred and forty-six, an increase of fifteen. In 1884–85 the number of new entries was one hundred and one, and the number of names on the catalogue was one hundred and fifty-three. The increase in the number of new entries was, however, abnormal; for the number of Harvard graduates who entered was fifty-six, being the largest number that has ever entered the School in any year, except 1879–80. In 1885–86 the number of new entries dropped to eighty-eight, a loss of thirteen, while the names on the catalogue numbered one hundred and fifty-four, a gain of one. There were therefore fourteen more old students in the School


  1. Annual Report of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1886–87.