The Conservatory is divided into eleven departments, schools for the piano, the voice, the organ, the violin, and other stringed instruments, theoretical instruction, embracing harmony, counterpoint, composition, orchestration, musical history and acoustics, orchestral and band music, expression (including education, physical culture, etc.), modern languages, piano tuning, and kindergarten music method. The extremely practical elements of this curriculum indicate the attention paid to the fundamental needs of the public. The Conservatory maintains an orchestra for practice in routine and training for students sufficiently advanced to justify their assignment to places in the organization. Frank E. Blatchford, of the violin faculty, who is also concert master of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, is the conductor. The Conservatory is affiliated with its near neighbor, the University of Toronto. Students who pass the conservatory examinations in musical theory are exempted from corresponding examinations by the University for the degree of Bachelor of Music. In its desire to spread at least a measure of musical knowledge and appreciation among the people, the conservatory conducts correspondence courses in musical theory, and, for the convenience of practice, especially in the piano, maintains eleven branches in the outlying residential districts of Toronto. The McGill University Conservatorium was opened in 1904. The Conservatorium, however, was then only in its experimental stage and it was not until October, 1908, that the connecting link between the University and the Conservatorium was completed by the appointment as director of Dr. Harry Crane Perrin, professor of music in the University. In 1909 the orchestra was formed, which was composed of students of the Conservatorium, and in February of that year they gave their first orchestral concert. VI Henry Dike Sleeper, professor of music in Smith College, a women's college of the first rank, has made an interesting analysis of the character of musical instruction given in the leading universities and colleges where the subject is taught. He says that there are four ideals of study: 1. Musical composition: Great emphasis is laid on this at the University of Pennsylvania, and it is a predominant, though lesser element in the schemes of Harvard and Yale. 2. Public performance: This is the chief feature of education in the conservatories affiliated with, but not a part of the regular academic course. These conservatories are founded largely in the West and South, and are connected with colleges that either are for women or are co-educational. 3. Culture: Amherst, Beloit, Cornell, and Tufts are examples of institutions where the music courses tend chiefly to imparting musical appreciation.