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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the profession. As usual, the Institute of Technology is early in the 

 field with a course designed to this end. 



The last of the engineering departments to be considered and one 

 of the largest, is that of civil engineering, a department established 

 when the Institute was founded, and until 1881 under the direction of 

 that accomplished scholar and teacher, Prof. J. B. Henck, and since 

 1887 in charge of the writer. This department has grown since 1886 

 from four to eleven teachers, and from sixty to one hundred and fifty- 

 three students in the three upper classes. It now occupies the two 

 upper floors of the Engineering Building, or about twenty-three thous- 

 and square feet. In recognition of the increasing importance of sani- 



Hydeavlic Surveying in the Es*ex Canal, Lowell. 



tary questions affecting the health of communities, a new branch of 

 civil engineering was recognized by the Institute in 1889 by the estab- 

 lishment of a regular four years' course in sanitary engineering, in 

 which particular attention is directed to such problems, and students 

 are afforded opportunities of studying the bearing of chemistry and 

 biology upon them. Here again the breadth and specialization of the 

 work at the Institute was shown, rendering it possible with no change 

 in the teaching force and with no disarrangement of studies, to establish 

 such a course of instruction as soon as the need for it became apparent. 

 Interesting work has been done under the direction of Professor 

 Burton, professor of topographical engineering, in connection with the 



