SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT.

To the Trustees of the Johns Hopkins University:

You requested me by a formal resolution to present in my last report a review of the work done in the various departments of this university since the opening in 1876, but circumstances beyond my control prevented me from complying with this expressed wish. I am now able to make such a summary as will enable you to judge of the results which have been reached during the past six years. This period is too brief to form a complete estimate of the work which is in progress; but it is long enough to show the principles which are here in operation and to indicate their tendency. It may be said of us, using the words of a recent writer in another connection, that the university has passed "out of the stage of prospectus into the stage of existence." It is a living force, attracting the attention of scholars far and wide, drawing students from almost every part of the Union, and visited frequently by observers of educational progress from foreign lands.

We have continually kept in mind that the principal object of this university is to educate

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