August 28, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



267 



man side, but he only shrugged his shoul- 

 ders. Perhaps he was not yet sufficiently 

 humbled. 



This occasion appears to me to be signi- 

 ficant, but as showing conditions which 

 exist rather than as forecasting future 

 changes. It is a symptom of the approach 

 — the arrival, perhaps— of healthful condi- 

 tions rather than a cause. It may, of 

 course, in its turn become a cause, and 

 operate toward good results. That is not 

 so certain. At the moment it indicates 

 conditions surrounding the teaching of 

 mathematics to engineering students, in- 

 cluding the relations between the teachers 

 of mathematics and those of engineering 

 which have been the growth of many years. 

 Those young and virile gentlemen whom we 

 all delight to honor, the Woodwards, have 

 been striving for decades to bring about a 

 closer relation between the teaching of 

 mathematics and the subsequent study of 

 practise of engineering. Ten years ago at 

 the Toronto meeting of the Society for 

 Promotion of Engineering Education I pre- 

 sented a paper looking to this end.^ There 

 are gentlemen here present who discussed 

 that paper and who may perhaps recall the 

 remarkable unanimity between the teachers 

 of mathematics and those of engineering as 

 to the results most to be desired in teaching 

 mathematics to engineering students, and, 

 indeed, as to the best available methods for 

 producing such results. This movement is 

 old. Most of the ideas which have been 

 brought out here were first conceived a 

 long time since. Nevertheless, it is good 

 to get together and talk them over, and 

 such discussions may result in help to the 

 individual teacher. 



We have heard here much of the ideal 

 which the engineering school should set 

 before itself, but it might well be asked 

 what problem is presented first to the 



' See Proceedings of Society for Promotion of 

 Engineering Education, Vol. V., 1897, p. 139. 



school as a matter of fact? President 

 Woodward put it in part when he spoke of 

 the difficulty of getting the right men in 

 the schools when operators are so eager 

 for good men and are competing on the 

 basis of " so much per month. ' ' And what 

 do the employers demand? They caU for 

 men who can do something, men who can 

 think in a logical and common-sense way, 

 but, withal, when they leave the school can 

 be put to some immediate use. The first 

 problem confronting the engineering col- 

 lege is how to meet this demand, for the 

 demand must be met in some degree at 

 least or the college will cease to train men. 



It is inevitable that the character of this 

 demand shall infiuence largely what the 

 school must do. The call is not for men 

 highly trained in mathematics, however 

 much we may feel it ought to be. It is 

 for men who know weU a little mathe- 

 matics, and who can do something with it, 

 who can use it " as a tool. ' ' And, however 

 obnoxious that expression may be to a 

 mathematical teacher, he who forgets or 

 disregards the fact which lies behind it 

 will surely weaken his instruction of engi- 

 neering students. 



I do not defend the specification of the 

 employer, I point to the fact with which we 

 must deal. Personally I am inclined to 

 find fault with it, but the matter rests 

 largely in the hands of the practising engi- 

 neer. He, though he often objects to the 

 college product, is to a great extent re- 

 sponsible for its general make-up. In the 

 long run and within reasonable limits he 

 can have what he wants. Sometimes he is 

 inclined to require too much technical 

 knowledge on the part of the graduate. 

 His brother teaching in the college in order 

 to meet his requirement says to the teacher 

 of mathematics I must have those students 

 ready earlier with their mathematics. This 

 fact, together with the general tendency in 

 the colleges to raise the standards, causes 



