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Purely technical instruction in civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Continued.

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Having now obtained what we want, that is to say, the details of a purely technical course of civil engineering, it is useless to encumber the page with other courses. In examining the above courses the reader observes that the first year is wholly or almost wholly devoted to preparatory study and the technological work does not begin until the second year; for during the preparatory year algebra, geometry, trigonometry, chemistry, or physics, and the mother tongue or another language are studied. He also will observe that during the remaining three years (those represented in the above schedules) no mention is made of geometrical and mechanical or of free-hand drawing, or of that species of drawing called descriptive geometry. Topographical and "railroad" drawing, map-drawing, and plane table surveying, etc., occur, but nothing is said of the general kinds of delineation, whether free-hand or mathematical. It must not be supposed, however, that general mathematical delineation ceases to be a subject of instruction in the two schools whose courses are represented. At the Rose Polytechnic mechanical drawing is given throughout the second and third years and descriptive geometry during the second year. At the Massachusetts Institute five hours a week for fifteen weeks of the second year, first term, are occupied with descriptive geometry. It is the same with language and the higher mathematics. They are not treated as an integral part of civil enineering, though studied concurrently by the students of the course in civil engineering. So strictly is the connotation of the term civil engineering observed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that not only pure, but even applied mathematics are considered as coördinate departments with that of civil engineering. The scheme of the department of applied mathematics at that school is therefore given.

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Of the subjects composing the course of pure mathematics in the Massachusetts Institute, calculus and analytical geometry enter into the curriculum of the civil engineering and every other course, except that of biology and the gen ral course, during the second or third year. Differential equations, theory of prorabilities, and spherical and practical astronomy, are features of the fourth year of the civil engincering course for two hours a week for fifteen weeks, in the case of the first subjects and in the case of astronomy for five weeks for three hours a we k during the third year. Though less radical in its treatment of applied ma hematics, the Rose Polytechnic also deems that pure mathematics are not civil engineering, though they are indispensable to the student of that subject. Mathematics at Rose Polytechnic.

FIRST TERM.

SECOND TERM.

THIRD TERM.

Sophomore year.. Analytic geometry:

Junior year...

Loci; treatment of
point, straight line,
circle, by cartesian
and polar coördi
nates; also parabola,
ellipse, hy berbola
(three times a week).
Determinants: Intro-
duction to the theory
of determinants, with
applications (once a
week).

Differential calculus:
Successive differen-

tiation.developments,
series. partial differ-
entiation, maxima
and minima, tangents
and normals, asymp
totes. multiple points,
envelopes, points of
inflection, radius of
curvature, evolutes,
involutes, tracing
curves, roulettes

transformations,
problems (five times a

week).

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As the methods of instruction-recitation, lecture, or field-are given in full by one of the other of the schedules of the two courses just commented upon, it is time to turn from the technical to the statistical side of the course in civil engineering in order to inquire how the time devoted to the course in other institutions compares with that given in the courses just mention d.

The summary of the hours of public study and practice lecture, recitation, etc.) at the Massachusetts Institute, at the Rose Polytechnic, and at the Technical University at Hanover is as follows:

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Technical University at Hannover (Germany)-First year: winter, 34; summer, 43. Second year: winter, 39; summer, 35. Third year: winter, 36; summer, 36. Fourth year: winter, 30; summer, 30.

It is evident that the schedules of the American catalogues do not give all the work performed; and it is necessary to obtain this by special inquiry. A preparatory step to such an inquiry was made in the form or 1589-90, sent out by this Bureau in June, 1890, its object, however, being to ascertain what courses had been introduced and were being followed in our technological institutions, and the duration and character of such courses. All these fac s should be broug it out, it is thought, by the following scheme though the time devoted to each course cannot be accurately indicated on so condensed a form.

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Some eight or nine months later the enterprise of the editor of Engineering News caused that journal to issue a circular of six foolscap printed sheets, that if answered will be a monument of the courtesy of its correspondents, and will place the public interested under obligations to the periodical which has carried bAverage.

a Does not include thesis work.

through such an undertaking. In June, 1891, the question represented by Table D. was sent out by the Bureau. The results of that inquiry are tabulated as they have been returned. Neither the question of 1889-90 nor that for 1890-91 was made with the ambitious design of showing statistically the history and condition of the engineering courses. Indeed, the Bureau was under the impression that such facts could not be obtained with sufficient fullness by the ordinary means of distributing circulars, and it was not prepared to formulate its desires until a study of the answers to the questions on its form and of the annual catalogues of the schools had shown that the time had come when such an inquiry would give fully satisfactory results. As said before a technical journal has undertaken the inquiry, has placed the results in the hands of an expert to be edited, and will soon publish them.

Thus relieved of any scruples in slighting the subject of technological instruction, one may turn to the consideration of a very energetic protest that has been caused by the question which forms the several headings of the following Table D. The point to which the Bureau would call special attention is expressed as follows: "This question [all the headings of Table D], although it can be readily and fairly .answered by some and perhaps many of the land-grant colleges, is so unsuited to our methods that even with the best intentions I see no way of fairly and honestly answering it in figures alone." In the case of the institution thus spoken of the question served its purpose. For years past the following colleges, endowed with the proceeds of the act of 1862 for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanical arts, have found it impossible to separate their technical work from that of their technical departments and have elected to be considered as colleges of letters rather than of technology:

List of agricultural and mechanical colleges whose work can not be separated from that of the State universities of which they are departments.

Location.

Berkeley, Cal...

Athens, Ga....
Baton Rouge, La.

Minneapolis, Minn..
Columbia, Mo

Lincoln, Nebr
Reno, Nev
Chapel Hill, N. C
Columbus, Ohio
Providence, R. I
Columbia, S. C.

Knoxville, Tenn..
Burlington, Vt

Morgantown, W. Va

Madison, Wis.

Name.

College of Agriculture, Mechanics, Mining, Engineering, and Chemistry (University of California).

Georgia State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (University of Georgia).

Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College.

College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (University of Minnesota).
Missouri Agricultural and Mechanical College (University of Mis-
souri).

Industrial College of the University of Nebraska.
University of Nevada.

Agricultural and Mechanical College (University of North Carolina).1
Ohio State University.

Agricultural and Scientific Department of Brown University.

South Carolina College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts (Uni-
versity of South Carolina).1

University of Tennessee and Agricultural and Mechanical College.
University of Vermont and State Agricultural College.
Agricultural Department of West Virginia University.
College of Arts (University of Wisconsin).

1 Now a separate institution.

The protest to which reference has been made is as follows:

SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL OF YALE UNIVERSITY,
New Haven, October 24, 1891.

Hon. WILLIAM T. HARRIS,
Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C.:

DEAR SIR: In the absence of President Dwight the inclosed schedule has been placed in my hands to answer. I have spent some considerable time in trying to answer the questions as fully and as correctly as is possible: but the fact is that several of the more prominent ones can not (or ought not) be answered in the shape they are asked. Some can not be answered because of the way our school is organized as a department of this university, or because of the complications incident to its age, and others ought not, because, if answered according to the schedule, the bare figures tell but part of the truth, and if tabulated along with answers to the same questions from certain other institutions, are misleading, a thing I know you wish to avoid.

The truth but half told may be as misleading as a positive falsehood, and is much harder to meet and explain when made use of as an argument in discussion or criticism. Some very bitter criticisms and many unjust charges have been brought against sundry of the land-grant colleges in the last few years, based nominally upon statistics. In most of these cases the statistics were unfair, if not positively false, in that the figures used either told but part of the truth or else meant different things when applied to contrasting colleges having different systems of classification or different methods of instruction. Several prominent institutions, North, South, East and West, have suffered from this and I think that few have entirely escaped. The fact that these colleges have suffered so much more in that respect than classical institutions I believe to be in part due to the nature of the statistics put forth, in which things essentially unlike are classed together, or things alike are called by different names. I am sure that you do not mean to help along this evil.

The land-grant colleges are so very varied in their organization, methods, scope, grade, and aims that tables of statistics made from the answers to the same questions by the different institutions may be made to show almost anything the user wants them to show. The answers to your schedule, stated in figures alone, mean very different things in the different institutions.

I have, therefore, written at more length explanations of some of my answers and the causes of my failure to answer others.

Question 6. [Table D.] This question, although it can be readily and fairly answered by some, and perhaps many, of the land-grant colleges, is so unsuited to our methods that even with the best of intentions I see of no way of fairly and honestly answering it in figures alone.

Our institution is not so organized that specific figures can be given to these questions without being misleading when the figures are used as components of statistical tables made out of the reports from several of many institutions. Many of the land-grant colleges are so organized that specific figures can be given in answer to most of these questions; ours is not.

The numerical data given in these tables would be very differently interpreted by different persons studying the figures for unlike objects. Some of the figures, even when correct, would tell but part of the truth and be misleading, and inferences very unfair to our college could be drawn from them. I know you do not wish that kind of statistics.

Please let me explain some of the more serious difficulties. First, as to what is "theory" and what "practice." When at the Washington meeting of the American Association of Agricultural Colleges, in August last, I took pains to get the views of a number of the college officers there present on this very matter, and I found the interpretation of these terms so very different by the different teachers consulted that the same facts returned according to your schedule questions by these different teachers would be very differently tabulated. Let me illustrate:

Mechanical drawing, as taught in these colleges, is certainly "technical;" it is taught in special rooms and with special appliances as truly as is the "work" in the "shops." Some teachers therefore call it "practice," but others call it "theory" and limit the term "practice" to "shop work" (done with the tools of the mechanic).

Botany and mycology are sciences necessary in teaching scientific agriculture or horticulture. They are pursued in specialized laboratories, with special appliances, and require skillful technique. Are these scientific studies theoretical" or "practical," and is this laboratory work "theoretical" or "practical" work? Some teachers in agriculture call it theoretical, others practical, more especially if in mycology. Some call the laboratory work "practical work;" others limit the use of the term to manual labor on the farm or in the garden, barn, or greenhouse. I feel sure that were we to return the hours spent in the drawing rooms and laboratories by our students in mechanical engineering or our students in agriculture as" practice," rather than "theory," many good people who know that we have neither farm nor machine shop for manual labor would feel that we had misrepresented things.

Your section 5 of question 6 relates to "applied chemistry." Does your term "practice" include all chemical study pursued by the students in the laboratory? All our undergraduates have such practice, those in engineering during the first year only, those in agriculture for two years, those in the chemical course three years. In each case it is our way of teaching the science of chemistry, and would be called "theoretical" study by most of those who discuss "industrial education." To tabulate as "practice" the laboratory work done in elementary

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