July 24, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



109 



obtainable. But from the data eolleeted 

 it is evident that widely differing systems 

 of administration prevail. 



Table II. does not contain the names of 

 all the colleges and universities in the 

 United States and Canada which pay 

 $45,000 or over in salaries annually to 

 their instructing staffs, because some such 

 institutions did not answer inquiries of the 

 foundation, or return answers in a form 

 available for statistical purposes. The 

 table contains the names of one hundred 

 and three colleges and universities in the 

 United States and Canada which have 

 given specific information that their total 

 payments in instructing salaries exceed 

 $45,000 annually."* 



TEE TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS TO 



ENGINEERING STUDENTS IN 



FOREIGN COUNTRIES'- 



Your committee has asked me to speak 

 of the teaching of mathematics in foreign 

 engineering colleges. My remarks will 

 have reference almost exclusively to the 

 German colleges and schools, partly be- 

 cause I am most familiar with the condi- 

 tions existing in Germany and partly on 

 account of the rather instructive campaign 

 for reforming the whole teaching of mathe- 

 matics, recently inaugurated in Germany. 



As regards other countries I will only 

 say that the situation in England and Scot- 

 land where, during the last quarter of a 

 century, technical education has rapidly 

 developed on quite characteristic and indi- 

 vidual lines, deserves careful attention. 

 But I am not sufficiently well acquainted 

 with the facts to discuss this educational 

 movement. In France, it is well known 

 that the theoretical training given to engi- 

 neers is on a very high level, higher even 



^"^ The data for instructors and assistants are 

 not reproduced. — Ed. 



'■ Read before Sections A and D, American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, and the 

 Chicago Section of the American Mathematical 

 Society, Chicago meeting, December 30, 1907. 



than in Germany, I believe. Thus, the re- 

 quirements for admission to the Ecole 

 Polyteehnique, or even to the Ecole Cen- 

 trale, include in mathematics almost as 

 much as our engineering students get in 

 their college course. On the top of this 

 preparation, the student receives in the 

 Ecole Polyteehnique an excellent two 

 years' course in higher analysis and theo- 

 retical mechanics, and then only is he 

 allowed to enter upon his special technical 

 work. It must also be taken into account 

 that admission to the Ecole Polyteehnique 

 is by competitive examinations held 

 throughout France, so that this institution, 

 receiving as it does the pick of students 

 from the whole country, can maintain a 

 high level of theoretical excellency. The 

 Ecole des Fonts et Chaussees and the Ecole 

 des Mines _ to which the student passes 

 from the Ecole Polyteehnique, are thus 

 what we might call graduate schools of 

 the highest rank. 



Turning now to the German engineering 

 colleges, a comparison with our o-mi best 

 engineering colleges shows apparently but 

 little difference, both as regards require- 

 ments for admission and as to the schedule 

 of courses offered in the schools themselves. 

 Nevertheless, I believe that the scientific 

 standard is decidedly higher in the German 

 than in the American engineering college. 

 I am not here concerned with the question 

 whether such a high standard of theoretical 

 knowledge is essential, or even desirable, 

 for the engineer; I merely state the fact. 

 Moreover, it is quite possible that ulti- 

 mately the average German engineer knows 

 no more mathematics than the average 

 American engineer. All I wish to main- 

 tain is that, in my opinion, an able German 

 student, in his Technische Hochschule, or 

 engineering university, can gain a more 

 thorough scientific equipment than an 

 equally able American student in his abna 

 mater. 



