At a stated meeting of the board of overseers yesterday forenoon the annual reports of the president and treasurer of the university for 1881-82 were presented. A synopsis of the more important points of the two reports follows. The president's report first refers to the loss by death or resignation of various officers of the university, and enumerated the appointments to various positions made during the year.

It then referred to the gratifying number of graduates of other colleges in the upper classes during the year, there being now twenty-five holders of the degree of A. B. in the undergraduate department. The change of policy of the faculty in regard to anticipation of studies of the freshman year was explained. The result of recent conferences between the principal colleges, looking towards the equalization of entrance examinations, was stated to be in a degree successful.

The increase of special students, and their changed status under the laws of the college, is noted. The passage of most interest in the report perhaps is concerning the recent move toward the regulation of college athletics. Through the appointment of a standing committee of three the faculty has for the first time a direct responsibility for the character and extent of our athletics. This has resulted in a set of regulations by this committee. "The influence of the committee has been successfully used to reduce the number of match games of ball and to confine them to Saturdays."

These various restrictive measures have on the whole commended themselves to the judgment of the whole body of students and graduates. "When games are made a business they lose a great part of their charm, and college sports cannot approach the professional standard of excellence without claiming the almost exclusive attention of the players, and becoming too severely monotonous and exacting to be thoroughly enjoyable."

Referring to the morning chapel service as now held, the president said: "The service is impressive, edifying and interesting, and he who can attend it for years without sometimes being touched by it and moved to better living, must be a very insensible and earth-bound person. Twice within a few years the college faculty has represented to the corporation that attendance at prayers ought, in their judgment, to be made voluntary, but the corporation has declined to take action upon the subject. In the autumn of 1881 a motion made in the board of overseers that the statutes ought to be altered so that attendance at prayers might be voluntary was rejected by a large majority."

The present year has seen the distinction between graduate and undergraduate courses abolished. Efforts of the corporation to raise the standard of the degree of A. M. are noted. Referring to commencement disturbances, the president says: "The good sense of the great majority of the class just graduated does not prove effectual to control the unthinking turbulence of a small minority, and, since the principal actors are bachelors of arts, the ordinary methods of college discipline as administered by the faculty are inapplicable. Preferring academic methods to any others, the corporation of overseers have agreed that they hold themselves at liberty to revoke the degree of any person who participates in these disorders, provided that his degree has just been conferred. It may be expected that this power will be exercised only in very plain cases and rather by way of suspension than of permanent revocation."

The progress of the Divinity School is described. As to its unsectarian character the report says:

"The bonds of denominationalism have been growing visibly weaker throughout the Protestant world, and it no longer seems impossible that young men should study theology, as they do metaphysics, political economy, or zoology, without having committed themselves in advance to any theory, creed or set of opinions on controverted points. Until that happy day comes, it is hardly to be hoped that the clerical profession can recover from the depressed condition into which it has fallen."

"There were four important events in the law school in the year 1881-82. The construction of an elegant and spacious building for the school was begun; a new professorship was endowed with the sum of $90,000 by an anonymous benefactor; to this professorship Mr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., was chosen; and finally a book fund was raised by subscription to the amount of $47,000, of which $25,-230 had been paid on September 1st, 1882."

The discussion concerning the admission of women into the medical school is explained. Temporary objections to the plan on the ground of the risk involved in new expenses in the recent transition of the school had great weight in defeating the measure.

After brief reference to the Scientific School, the Dental School, the Botanic Garden, and the Bussey Institution, the report spoke of the striking activity of the chemical laboratory and the operations of the library. Whenever the expenses of the college threaten to exceed its receipts the corporation turns to the library as the best place in which to reduce expenses, because library work can be postponed, while teaching cannot. What the library greatly needs is funds amounting to at least $400,000, the income of which could be applied to the cost of administration and service.

The appeal of the Observatory for a permanent fund of $100,000 is also commended. The growth of the Agassiz Museum during the year has been most gratifying.

The objects which the university had in view in organizing the new department of Veterinary Medicine are briefly these: To train year by year a few competent and trustworthy practitioners; and to contribute to the progress of a branch of science which deals with many questions of public health and with great pecuniary interests.

The new physical laboratory will be begun in the spring.

The loose tenure of the various class funds calls for some provisions. It is suggested that, for example, the Association of the Alumni might furnish from its officers a small body of trustees to hold class funds, to pay the income of each fund to the order of the class secretary, and to dispose of each fund by fixed rules upon the extinction of the class to which it belonged. This subject is respectfully commended to the attention of the alumni.

In the near future a building to cost $250,000 is to be erected from the proceeds of the Hastings bequest. The attention of the friends and supporters of the university should now be turned to the increase of the quick capital, or invested funds, and especially of unrestricted funds and of funds devoted to such comprehensive purposes as salaries, retiring allowances, scholarships for undergraduates, special students, graduates, or professional students, administration and service in the gymnasium, chapel, library, or dining hall, and the maintenance of the several scientific laboratories. There is a variety of objects, both large and small, as great as the diversity of intellectual interests which the university represents. Among large objects may be mentioned twenty-eight unnamed professorships of as many different subjects which await endowment; among small, the numerous scholarships needed for the promotion of post-graduate and professional study. It may be doubted whether a building is, after all, so durable and desirable a memorial as a fund, the income of which is devoted to an object of permanent interest and worth.

From the report of the treasurer it appears that the total amount of the separate trust funds held by him is $686,515.84, and the income from them this year is $31,367.19. The other funds of the college, which are invested as a whole, show a total this year of $4,511,861.59 a net increase over the previous year of $278,441.34. The annual income from this general capital is $233,352.88. The rate of income for 1882-83 is likely to be below five and a half per cent. The deficit for the year in the departments dependent upon the college proper is $14,738.63; but the Divinity, Law, Medical and Scientific Schools each show a small surplus, as do the Dental School and Bussey Institution. These surplus funds have in the main been used to offset previous debts in the same departments.

The total amount of gifts for immediate use received during the year was $157,096.68. This does not include the recently received bequest of $100,000 from the estate of the late Geo. B. Dorr of Boston, which has come into possession of the college during the academic year now current.