THE system of hour examinations has been lately adopted by a large number of instructors. The system in itself is excellent; it forces upon one's notice the little shortcomings under which he is laboring, enables him to see where he is ignorant when he should be wise, and in various ways removes stumbling-blocks over which he would otherwise fall at the Semiannuals and the Annuals. These short examinations make easier the work of both instructors and students and as they are for the advantage of both, it seems to us that they should be arranged with some reference to the convenience of both. In some cases the convenience of students has been consulted when the time was fixed for these simple recreations; in other cases the question has been settled without regard to their convenience. Cases have been known, accordingly, of men having four of these preliminary trials in one week. The object of each of the four examinations has tests of knowledge, and their object in pointing out the proper way of getting up the subjects, are then both alike unattained. It is a simple matter for an instructor to ask whether his division as any good reason for preferring to have their examination come one week or another. Let us hope that more of them will try the effect of putting such a question.