The French degrees are divided into those given by the state and those given by the university. The former consist of the several licentiates and doctorates, for the latter of which one or more dissertations are necessary. The latter consists of the doctorates of the university, which in general resemble the state doctorates.
In America, the older British system has been overlaid by the German plan, so that both master of arts and doctor of philosophy are given. The college course of four years, pre scribed to a greater or less extent according to the university or college at which it is given, leads up to a bachelor's degree, usually in arts, science or philosophy, according to the amount of attention devoted to the classics and the natural sciences. These are given in most colleges and universities in four grades, of which the three higher are cum laude, magma cum laude, and summa cum laude. The various technical and professional schools, which may or may not require a college degree or a cer tain amount of college work for admission, give a bachelor's degree, except in the case of medicine and dental medicine, where the first degree is usually that of doctor. The master's degree is given upon the completion with credit of a year or two of post-graduate work, with or without the writing of a thesis. The doctorate in philosophy and science, and oc casionally in theology and law, is given much after the German fashion, upon from to five years of post-graduate work, the writing of a thesis and the satisfactory passing of written and oral examinations. For the most part the degree of doctor of letters (Litt.D.), doctor of laws (LL.D.) and doctor of divinity (D.D.) are conferred as honorary degrees. This practice of conferring honorary degrees has in many cases been grossly abused, and even the ordinary degrees given in course have been put to the entirely unnatural use of compliments or gifts.
land, Hungary and Italy. When the French established their new and admirable system of measures and weights upon the basis of the metre, which was to be the ten millionth part of the distance from the equator to the pole (3.2808992 English feet, or 39.37 inches), it was necessary to know with accuracy the circum ference and the flattening of the earth. A meas urement, therefore, took place in France, not of one degree, but of 10 degrees, from Dunkirk to Formentera, one of the Balearic Islands. In Sweden in 1802 the degree, which 80 years before had been measured by Maupertuis, was now measured again with better instruments, and thus the circumference and flattening of the earth were pretty well ascertained. After the Peace of Amiens the measurements of de grees just made in England, under General Roy, by Lieutenant-Colonel Mudge, were connected with those in France; and thus an arc of 20 degrees, from the Balearic Islands over France and England, to the Orkneys, was measured, and the flattening of the earth calculated to be 1-304th (the most recent estimate being 1-292d). In India the measurement of a degree, begun by Lambton, was continued by Everest and completed by Walker. The measurement of an arc of 25 degrees 20 minutes from Hammerfest to Ismailia was completed in 1855. Similar measurements have been continued to the present time, and at the Geodetic Congress in London in 1900, it was announced that English experts were engaged in measuring an arc of the meridian of 104 degrees from Cape Colony to Alexandria, and had made considerable progress.
The annexed table shows the lengths of a degree of longitude for places at every de gree of latitude from 0 degree to 90 degrees. It is computed on the supposition that the earth is a sphere.