790 REPORT— 1895. 



placed at right angles to the shore and the direction of the waves, and situated for 

 the most part in shallower water. The erosion of the bed of the Ganges Canal on 

 the first admission of the water, necessitating the erection of weirs at intervals to 

 check the current, resulted from an error in the calculated discharge of the channel 

 with the given inclination, and the consequent undue velocity of the stream, pro- 

 ducing scour. The failure of the jetty works at the outlet of the Rhone to effect any 

 permanent deepening of the channel over the bar, was due to the unsuitable direc- 

 tion given to the outlet channel in view of the physical conditions of the site, and 

 the concentration of all the discharge, and consequently all the alluvium carried 

 down, into a single mouth, whereby the rate of deposit in front of this outlet has 

 been considerably increased. The excessive cost, and consequent stoppage, of the 

 Panama Canal works, though due to a variety of causes, must be partly attributed 

 to want of due consideration of the strata to be excavated ; for a cutting of 300 

 feet in depth, which may be possible in rock, becomes impracticable when a con- 

 siderable portion has to be executed in very treacherous clay. 



Occasionally failures of works may be attributed to exceptional causes or pecu- 

 liarly unfavourable conditions ; but in most cases, as in the instances given above, 

 they are the result of errors or deficiencies in design, which might have been 

 avoided by a more correct appreciation of the physical conditions involved. 



Scientific Training of Engineers. — In most professions, preliminary training in 

 those branches of knowledge calculated to fit a student for the exercise of his pro- 

 fession is considered indispensably necessary ; and examinations to test the pro- 

 • ficiency of candidates have to be passed as a necessary qualification for admission 

 into the Army, Navy, Church, Civil Service, and both branches of the law. Special 

 care is taken in securing an adequate preliminary training in the case of persons to 

 whom the health of individuals is to be entrusted, not merely by experience in 

 hospitals, but also by examinations in those branches of science and practice relating 

 to medicine and surgery, before the medical student can become a qualified practi- 

 tioner. If so much caution is exercised in protecting individuals from being 

 attended by doctors possessing insufticient knowledge of the rudiments of their 

 profession, how much more necessary should it be to ensure that engineers are 

 similarly qualified, to whom the safety and well-being of the commimity, as well 

 as large responsibilities in regard to expenditure, are liable to be entrusted ! The 

 duty of the engineer is to apply the resources of nature and science to the material 

 henefit and progress of mankind ; and it, therefore, seems irrational that no 

 guarantee should be provided that persons, before becoming engineers, should acquire 

 some knowledge of natural laws, and of the principles of those sciences which form 

 the basis of engineering. The Institution of Civil Engineers has, indeed, of recent 

 years required some evidence of young men having received a good education before 

 their admission into the student class ; but some of the examinations accepted as suifi- 

 cient for studentship, such as a degree in any British university, afibrd no certainty 

 in themselves that the persons who have passed them possess any of the qualifications 

 requisite for an engineer : and it is quite unnecessary to become a student of the 

 Institution in order to become an engineer. The Council of the Institution has no 

 doubt been hitherto deterred from proposing the estabhshment of an examination 

 m mathematics and natural science, as a necessary preliminary to becoming an 

 engineer, by the remembrance that some of the most distinguished engineers of early 

 days in this country were self-taught men ; but since those days engineering and 

 the sciences upon which it is based have made marvellous advances ; and in view 

 of these developments, and the excellent theoretical training given to foreign 

 engineers, it is essential that British engineers, if they desire to retain their present 

 position in the world, should arrange that the recruits to their profession may be 

 amply qualified at their entrance in theoretical knowledge, in order to preserve the 

 standard attained, and to be in a position to achieve further progress. No amount 

 of preliminary training will, indeed , necessarily secure the success of an engineer^ 

 anymore than the greatest proficiency would be certain to lead the medical student 

 to renown as a physician or surgeon ; but other conditions being equal, it will greatly 

 promote his prospects of advancement in his profession, and his utility to his 

 colleagues and the public. The engineers of the past achieved great results in the 



