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A SALUTARY INFLUENCE For reasons best known to themselves, the trustees in 1868 transferred the then-vacant Franklin professorship from the ancient languages to history. The new chair remained vacant until 1870, when Henry Eyster Jacobs was elected. The board then assigned Jacobs the title of Franklin Professor of the Latin Language, and of History, but it could not grant him enough time to do justice to both subjects. In fact, believing that Latin had the priority, he taught no history. In desperation, he asked the trustees in 1872 either to reduce his teaching responsibilities in Latin or to change his title. They responded by directing the faculty to arrange Jacobs' schedule so that he could offer work in history to the members of the senior class, .This he did, during two of their three terms. In 1880, when the trustees undertook a major rearrangement of the professorships, they transferred history from Jacobs to John A. Himes, the English professor. History was not listed in the catalogue among the departments of instruction after 1875, although some work in the subject was offered in the Greek, Latin, German, and English departments. In presenting the various needs of the College in the 1880s, spokesmen called for two new professorships, one of which was in history. "A thorough, accurate and ready acquaintance with History," declared Milton Valentine in 1884, was never "more necessary than in the present reconstructions of social ideas and political systems."115 Necessary or not, no professorship was forthcoming at this time. In 1895, when course descriptions first appeared in the catalogue, the faculty created a paper department of history, political science, and law. Of the seven courses listed under it, two were in history. Modern European History, required of freshmen, was taught by the German professor. American Political History, required of sophomores, was taught by the English professor. These assignments, first made some years before 1895, were still in effect in 1904. Defenders of the traditional liberal arts in the post-Civil War era considered mathematics on a par with the classics as a fundamental study in the curriculum. In 1885 Harvey W. McKnight said it was one of those subjects "which are mainly disciplinary, and have proved to be most conducive to robust and rounded mental development."116 As it had been ever since 1832, mathematics at Gettysburg was a required subject in 1904. Students took algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and surveying in their freshman and sophomore years, as well as astronomy in their senior years. For the latter subject, they used the College Observatory. Henry B. Nixon, who taught all of the courses in mathematics and astronomy, was the 115Quoted in College Monthly (March 1884), p. 41. 116Quoted in ibid. (October 1885), p. 235. 28