1887.] on the Work of tlie Imperial Institute. 115 



From the age of six to twelve, or thirteen, the children must 

 attend primary schools, where, as the pupils advance in age, the 

 instruction becomes more practical. The application of the know- 

 ledge acquired in these primary schools, is cultivated for three 

 years at the so-called " Improvement Schools," and uj)on these 

 follow the Cantonal High Schools, which are divided into trade- 

 and classical schools, and of which there are sixtj^-seven in the little 

 canton of Zurich alone. Above those there are five universities and 

 the Zurich Technical Institute, which is supported by the Federal 

 Government, the Canton itself subscribing liberally to its aid. It 

 owns a very numerous staff of professors and teachers, and the 

 number of students attending is so large that, magnificent as was 

 the accommodation which it already afl'orded, no less than 50,000/. 

 have recently been spent upon additional chemical laboratories. 

 Although the Germans have so many technical colleges and chemical 

 schools they go in large numbers to the Zurich Institute, and even 

 a few English appreciate the great advantages which must accrue 

 from the thorough training attainable in this world-renowned school 

 of technics. 



Holland furnishes another brilliant example of the success with 

 which a Nation can bring the power of systematic technical education 

 to bear in securing and maintaining industrial victories in the face of 

 most formidable disadvantages, while the United States of America, 

 so rich in natural resources, have long since realised the immensity 

 of additional advantages to be gained dver European Nations in the 

 war of industry by a wide diffusion and thorough organisation of 

 technical education. So long as forty years ago the States already 

 possessed several excellent educational institutions established upon 

 the basis of the Continental polytechnic schools, but it was not until 

 about fifteen years later that the great advances achieved by Ger- 

 many in technical education, made America, like France, anxious con- 

 cerning the progress and development of some of her industries. 



The subject was at once made a thoroughly national one, and it 

 is now just upon a quarter of a century ago since Congress ordained 

 that each State should provide at least one college, having for its 

 leading objects the diffusion of scientific instruction in its relations 

 to the industry of the country, and decreed that public lands should 

 be granted to the States and Territories providing such colleges. 

 In accordance with the system adopted for the regulation of these 

 grants, the State of New York received close upon a million acres 

 of land, and out of this grant grew the University of Cornell, 

 which could be called upon to educate 500 students free of 

 charge under the conditions of the grant, and which was already 

 at work in 1867, having in the meantime received most important aid 

 from an endowment of 100,000Z. by a private citizen, Mr. Cornell. 

 The combined effect of this State action and of great private munifi- 

 cence, was a remarkably rapid development of scientific and technical 

 education throughout the country ; besides some fifty colleges, with 



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