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386 VIRGINIA (UNIVERSITY OF) of Charlottesville. The name of the post office is the same as that of the institution. In 1818 the general assembly voted an an- nual appropriation of $15,000 to endow and support the university, which was chartered in 1819 and opened in 1824. Its organization, plan of government, and system of instruction are due to Thomas Jefferson, who in the in- scription prepared by himself for his tomb preferred to be remembered as the " author of the Declaration of Independence and of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and father of the university of Virginia." The government of the university is vested in a board of visitors composed of a rector and eight members. The visitors are appointed every fourth year by the governor of the state, and they select the rector from their own num- ber. The office of rector was first held by Mr. Jefferson, and after his death successively by James Madison, Chapman Johnson, and J. C. The Rotunda. Cabell. The present rector (1878) ia R. G. II. Kean. The affairs of the institution are im- mediately administered by the faculty, who are appointed by the board of visitors. The chair- man of the faculty is selected annually by the board from the faculty, and performs most of the duties of president of the university. The professors are paid in part by salaries ($1,000 each), and in part by tuition fees from pupils who attend their several schools. Besides the plan of government, the substitution of a chair- man of the faculty for a permanent president, and the mode of remunerating professors, the chief distinguishing features of the university are its organization into independent schools and the system of conferring degrees for pro- ficiency in any one school or in a number of schools collectively. No general curriculum is prescribed. Students may select for each year such schools and as many as they wish to at- tend, but in general they are advised to limit themselves to three. In the academic depart- ment each one is required to attend at least three, unless permitted by the faculty to take fewer. In some of the schools the course of study occupies three years ; in several the time is less. The mode of instruction is by lectures and text books, with daily oral examinations. There are also semi-annual examinations in writing. Discipline is sought chiefly by appeal to each student's sense of honor. Each school is placed under the charge of a professor ; in several there are one or more assistant instruc- tors. The schools in operation are as follows : 1, Latin; 2, Greek; 3, modern languages; 4, moral philosophy ; 5, history, general literature, and rhetoric ; 6, mathematics ; 7, natural phi- losophy (including mineralogy and geology) ; 8, applied mathematics, engineering, and archi- tecture ; 9, analytical and agricultural chemis- try; 10, natural history, experimental and practical agriculture; 11, comparative anat- omy, physiology, and surgery ; 12, anatomy and materia medica; 13, medical jurispru- dence, obstetrics, and practice of medicine ; 14, chemistry and pharmacy ; 16, com- mon and statute law ; 16, equity, mercan- tile and internation- al, constitutional and civil law, and gov- ernment. The school year begins on Oct. 1, and continues without interruption until the Thursday before the 4th of July. The de- grees conferred by the university after writ- ten examination are academic and profes- sional. The former are : 1, that of a proficient, conferred for satis- factory attainments in certain studies which do not constitute a full school ; 2, graduate in a school, conferred for satisfactory attainments in the leading subjects of instruction in any school ; 8, bachelor of letters, conferred upon students who have graduated in the schools of ancient and modern languages, moral philoso- phy, and history and literature; 4, bachelor of science, conferred upon students who have graduated in the schools of mathematics, natu- ral philosophy, and general chemistry, and have made certain attainments in mineralogy and geology, applied mathematics, and analyti- cal chemistry ; 5, bachelor of arts, obtained by graduates in the schools of Latin, Greek, gen- eral chemistry, moral philosophy, and French or German, who have made certain attainments in mathematics, physics, and history and litera- ture ; 6, master of arts of the university of Virginia, conferred upon students who have