LAVAL UNIVERSITY,' Montreal, ada, was founded at Quebec, in 1852, by the seminary of that city, which gave it the name of its own founder, Mgr. Francois de Montmo rency-Laval, first bishop of Quebec. The di rectors of this institution obtained then from Her Majesty Queen' Victoria a charter which in confirming the rights and privileges they had enjoyed up to that time also conferred upon them university rights and privileges, for the instruction of youth in secondary and profes sional studies.
In 1876, following a request from Mgr. Bourget, bishop of Montreal, to secure a Cath olic university in his episcopal city, the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda enjoined Laval University to establish a section at Montreal, to•give therein the same instruction as at Que bec. This was inaugurated in 1878, in the faculties of theology and law, in 1879 in the faculty of medicine and in 1:'7 in the faculty of arts. By virtue of the apostolic con stitution Jamdudum, of 2 Feb. 1889, the section is to-day practically independent of the estab lishment at Quebec. It receives its degrees from that University Council, but enjoys its own government and a complete local administration. It comprises four faculties, those of theology, law, medicine and of arts (sciences and letters), seven aggregated schools, the Polytechnic, the School of Comparative Medicine and Veter inary Science of Montreal, that of Dental Sur gery, that of Pharmacy, Notre Dame Ladies' College, the Agricultural College at Oka and the School of Higher Commercial Studies. The French language is used in all sections ex cept that of theology, where Latin prevails. The professors of the faculty of •theol ogy are appointed by the Grand Seminary of Montreal, directed by the priests of Saint Sulpice. The ordinary course is three years and three months. Some pupils prolong their stay six months to prepare themselves for doc torship. A greater number, after completing their course at Montreal, go to take their de grees in Rome, where the Seminary of Saint Sulpice of Montreal has opened a college for Canadian students.
The faculties of law and medicines are in stalled in an edifice on Saint Denis street, where they have large classrooms, sectional libraries, playrooms, a gymnasium, etc. The
faculty of medicine has a lecture-room, a dis secting-room and four laboratories, for chem istry, histology, bacteriology and medical elec tricity. The present faculty of medicine con tinues the School of Medicine and Surgery of Montreal, founded in 1845 and affiliated to the Victoria University of Coburg (Ontario), from which it received its degrees until the year 1890. At this period the school had its charter modified by the Quebec government and allied itself to the Montreal section of the faculty of medicine of Laval University, with which to day it forms one body. It receives its degrees from Laval University, but has maintained its charter and autonomy.
As the scientific and literary course which is usually followed by this faculty in the Eng lish universities is given, in this province, to Catholic youths by the colleges and seminary schools affiliated to Laval University, where the pupils obtain the degrees of bachelor of letters, of sciences or arts, a complete instruction of this kind is not imposed on the university. Seven courses, relevant to this faculty, are actually given there, that of French literature, founded in 1898, by the late Abbe Colin, supe rior of the Seminary of Saint Sulpice of Montreal. Up to that time this course had been given by a Fellow of the Paris University. The second course has for its object ecclesi astical public law, and comprises 20 lessons. The five other courses are those of history of fine arts, economics, Gregorian plain-chant, pedagogy and French-Canadian history. The other professors, ecclesiastic or lay, of the faculty of arts give a regular course in the colleges affiliated to the university, or are occa sionally called to give public conferences at the university. To this faculty have been an nexed a college for the higher education of young girls, which is under the immediate su pervision of the congregation of Notre Dame, and a college of modern literary teaching for members of religious communities and laymen also, This year the faculty gave a summer school for masters of secondary and primary instruction.