THE STATUS OF AN ENGINEER 3 



lead the public to believe that he is qualified as a dentist in 

 the popular sense may be prosecuted and fined. In the 

 profession of the law the Incorporated Law Society can deal 

 with solicitors, while the benchers of the Inns of Court have 

 power to supervise the action of every member of the Bar. 

 But the engineering profession has no domestic body to 

 control and prescribe rules of conduct for its members. 



3. Who is a consulting engineer. The first difficulty 

 attending the enforcement of rules for professional conduct 

 would be the definition of the term "consulting engineer." 

 As we have already pointed out, anyone may adopt this high- 

 sounding title ; and, apparently, the persons who consult him 

 have no right to complain if they find out that the consultant 

 has no semblance of a qualification. Amongst the leaders of 

 the profession it would seem that the phrase " consulting 

 engineer" has a well-defined meaning. Sir Alexander 

 Kennedy, in addressing a body of students in 1903, said : 

 " Among engineers who may be called consultants I would 

 include not only men who work independently, like myself, 

 but also the great army of borough engineers of all classes 

 of engineers to municipal works of every kind, and of 

 engineers to companies or firms who are not manufacturers. 



" All these men, although they are not strictly consulting 

 engineers, at least belong to a class distinct from manufac- 

 turers, and it is their kind of work which I know most about, 

 and desire to speak of. Their business is generally to scheme 

 out plans for carrying out works ; to draw up the specification 

 in which these plans are, or ought to be, described; to 

 superintend the work as it goes on ; and in general to 

 formulate what they or their employers want to be done, and 

 then to see that it is properly done. Very often, besides, 

 they have the interesting experience of being actually users of 

 the works that they have schemed out." 



If it were possible to limit the right to use the title " con- 

 sulting engineer " to persons having these qualifications, it 

 would not be difficult to enforce rules of etiquette. The medical 

 practitioner who has a degree knows that the use of that 

 degree will be protected. He knows that no mere layman can 

 call himself "doctor" or "surgeon"; but he knows more. 

 He can rely upon the General Medical Council to punish any 

 of his professional brethren who ignore the unwritten code of 



B2 



