BACHELOR'S DEGREE'. One of the oldest of academic distinctions, the exact significance of which has varied in different countries and in different periods in the same countries. In gen eral, it has been conferred at the close of the first stage in a liberal education, and is supposed to indicate that the recipient is proficient in cer tain fundamental branches. The original form of the degree was Bachelor of Arts (ILA.), and usually it is essential that this degree should he taken before proceeding to the higher degree of Master of Arts, or Doctor of Philosophy. In France there are two forms for the baccalaureate degree—bachelier es lettres and bachelier es sci Oreat Britain, while conservative about the B.A. degree, recognizes also B.Sc., and the bachelor's degree is also conferred in professional courses. So, too, in the United States. there are Bachelors of Law (LL.B. or B.L.) , Bachelors of Divinity (B.D. or S.T.B.), Bachelors of Medicine (M.B.), etc. Here, too, where academic degrees are but slightly protected by law, many modifi cations of the baccalaureate degree have heen employed to indicate the completion of certain special courses of study. The scientific schools
have given the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy (as at Yale, since 1852). Bachelor of Science (as at Harvard, since 1851), and in many places the degree of Bachelor of Letters is conferred upon those whose studies are not scientific or classical, lint are based on modern literature. Bachelor of Science (B.S.) is in almost every college and university an established degree, while Bachelor of Philosophy (Ph.B.) and Bachelor of Letters (B.L. or Litt.B.) have in the majority of cases been introduced only to be discarded. The bachelor's degree has also been given in phar macy, agriculture, music, veterinary medicine, and many other subjects; but there is much op position to this use of the traditional 'baccalau reate,' and the tendency is more and more toward its limitation.