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The scientific department of Harvard has secured a reputation for broadness and thoroughness of instruction which few institutions of learning now enjoy. In Chemistry and Natural Science, the courses of instruction and the general methods pursued are unexceptional, and the department in Physics is also strong. But in Physics, one or two improvements can be made which would, we think, meet the wants of many scientific students in a more satisfactory way. We discover, in looking over the college curriculum, that the provision for the study of electricity and magnetism is in some respects inadequate. We refer particularly to the absence of an elementary laboratory course in these subjects. The only course in which a knowledge of them can be acquired is in Physics C where only the last four months of the college year is devoted to their study and the first five are filled with tedious experiments on force, light, sound, heat, etc. on which many students do not care to spend their time. The science of electrical engineering has assumed immense importance in the last few years, and in some institutions, notably the Institute of Technology, the subject of electrical engineering forms, by itself, a complete course of higher study. There are many men in college who desire an extended knowledge of electricity and magnetism, and we hope that the elective pamphlet, now so near at hand, will contain some provision for this need.