26 



Kansas Academy of Science. 



severe stress to provide for the instructional force and the equip- 

 ment in buildings, laboratories and apparatus needed to properly 

 care for the influx of students into engineering courses. 



The growth of the Western schools has not been so spectacular, 

 but has been none the less marked and real, and has led to the same 

 pressing problems of administration, the same deficiencies in the 

 number of instructors, the floor space required, and the equipment 

 of drawing rooms and laboratories. In the institutions east of the 

 Mississippi, the problems have been met and solved through legis- 

 lative action, generously appropriating the necessary funds. The 

 Western colleges, on the other hand, have felt the influence of the 

 trend toward this form of scientific training, without the stimulus 

 of generous legislative aid, for the lack of which they are now at 

 this present time suffering. This is especially true in Kansas, 

 where the state institutions have no distinctive engineering build- 

 ings and an inadequate equipment for the number of technical 

 students already on the ground, to say nothing of the increased 

 numbers that are sure to come in the immediate future. 



The distribution of students between the various technical lines 

 is interesting and is shown by the following table : 



Number of Students in Various Technical Courses 

 IN American Colleges. 



* From proceedings of Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education. 

 t From reports of United States Commission of Education. 



The above figures will show the recent trend as between the va- 

 rious lines of study chosen by students, but one can hardly say that 

 this represents a i)erraanent distribution, for the time covered is 

 too short to warrant such a judgment. However, the introduction 

 of courses in textile engineering in several Southern institutions 

 is worthy of note as a new departure, as is also the increasing num- 



