[1] This name is usually written Joan, the form used by the man
himself in his signature--see the facsimile in Netscher's _Les
Hollandais en Brésil_.
JOHN O' GROAT'S HOUSE, a spot on the north coast of Caithness, Scotland,
14 m. N. of Wick and 1¾ m. W. of Duncansby Head. It is the mythical site
of an octagonal house said to have been erected early in the 16th
century by one John Groot, a Dutchman who had migrated to the north of
Scotland by permission of James IV. According to the legend, other
members of the Groot family followed John, and acquired lands around
Duncansby. When there were eight Groot families, disputes began to arise
as to precedence at annual feasts. These squabbles John Groot is said to
have settled by building an octagonal house which had eight entrances
and eight tables, so that the head of each family could enter by his own
door and sit at the head of his own table. Being but a few miles south
of Dunnet Head, John o' Groat's is a colloquial term for the most
northerly point of Scotland. The site of the traditional building is
marked by an outline traced in turf. Descendants of the Groot family,
now Groat, still live in the neighbourhood. The cowry-shell, _Cypraea
europaea_, is locally known as "John o' Groat's bucky."
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, an American educational institution at
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. Its trustees, chosen by Johns Hopkins
(1794-1873), a successful Baltimore merchant, were incorporated on the
24th of August 1867 under a general act "for the promotion of education
in the state of Maryland." But nothing was actually done until after the
death of Johns Hopkins (Dec. 24, 1873), when his fortune of $7,000,000
was equally divided between the projected university and a hospital,
also to bear his name, and intended to be an auxiliary to the medical
school of the university. The trustees of the university consulted with
many prominent educationists, notably Charles W. Eliot of Harvard,
Andrew D. White of Cornell, and James B. Angell of the university of
Michigan; on the 30th of December 1874 they elected Daniel Coit Gilman
(q.v.) president. The university was formally opened on the 3rd of
October 1876, when an address was delivered by T. H. Huxley. The first
year was largely given up to consultation among the newly chosen
professors, among whom were--in Greek, B. L. Gildersleeve; in
mathematics, J. J. Sylvester; in chemistry, Ira Remsen; in biology,
Henry Newell Martin (1848-1896); in zoology, William Keith Brooks
(1848-1908); and in physics, Henry Augustus Rowland (1848-1901).
Prominent among later teachers were Arthur Cayley in mathematics, the
Semitic scholar Paul Haupt (b. 1858), Granville Stanley Hall in
psychology, Maurice Bloomfield in Sanskrit and comparative philology,
James Rendel Harris in Biblical philology, James Wilson Bright in
English philology, Herbert B. Adams in history, and Richard T. Ely (b.
1854) in economics. The university at once became a pioneer in the
United States in teaching by means of seminary courses and laboratories,
and it has been eminently successful in encouraging research, in
scientific production, and in preparing its students to become
instructors in other colleges and universities. It includes a college in
which each of five parallel courses leads to the degree of Bachelor of
Arts, but its reputation has been established chiefly by its other two
departments, the graduate school and the medical school. The graduate
school offers courses in philosophy and psychology, physics, chemistry
and biology, historical and economic science, language and literature,
and confers the degree of Doctor of Philosophy after at least three
years' residence. From its foundation the university had novel features
and a liberal administration. Twenty annual fellowships of $500 each
were opened to the graduates of any college. Petrography and laboratory
psychology were among the new sciences fostered by the new university.
Such eminent outsiders were secured for brief residence and lecture
courses as J. R. Lowell, F. J. Child, Simon Newcomb, H. E. von Holst, F.
A. Walker, William James, Sidney Lanier, James Bryce, E. A. Freeman, W.
W. Goodwin, and Alfred Russel Wallace. President Gilman gave up his
presidential duties on the 1st of September 1901, Ira Remsen[1]
succeeding him in the office. The medical department, inaugurated in
1893, is closely affiliated with the excellently equipped Johns Hopkins
Hospital (opened in 1889), and is actually a graduate school, as it
admits only students holding the bachelor's degree or its equivalent.
The degree of Doctor of Medicine is conferred after four years of
successful study, and advanced courses are offered. The department's
greatest teachers have been William Osler (b. 1849) and William Henry
Welch (b. 1850).
The buildings of the university were in 1901 an unpretentious group on
crowded ground near the business centre of the city. In 1902 a new site
was secured, containing about 125 acres amid pleasant surroundings in
the northern suburbs, and new buildings were designed in accordance with
a plan formed with a view to secure harmony and symmetry. In 1907 the
library contained more than 133,000 bound volumes. Among the numerous
publications issued by the university press are: _American Journal of
Mathematics_, _Studies in Historical and Political Science_, _Reprint of
Economic Tracts, American Journal of Philology_, _Contributions to
Assyriology and Semitic Philology_, _Modern Language Notes_, _American
Chemical Journal_, _American Journal of Insanity_, _Terrestrial
Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity_, _Reports of the Maryland
Geological Survey_, and _Reports of the Maryland Weather Service_. The
institution is maintained chiefly with the proceeds of the endowment
fund. It also receives aid from the state, and charges tuition fees. Its
government is entrusted to a board of trustees, while the direction of
affairs of a strictly academic nature is delegated to an academic
council and to department boards. In 1907-1908 the regular faculty
numbered 175, and there was an enrolment of 683 students, of whom 518
were in post-graduate courses.
On the history of the university see Daniel C. Gilman, _The Launching of
a University_ (New York, 1906), and the annual reports of the president.