268 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 713 



the mathematical training to be crowded 

 into the first year and a half or two years, 

 when the student is least mature. More 

 of it is being pushed back to the second- 

 ary school, and, in turn, into the grades. 

 Mathematical concepts are difficult, and 

 with President Woodward I am inclined to 

 think we are demanding too much, and 

 calling for it too soon. Covering less 

 ground and at a slower pace will help to 

 make better engineers. 



The student comes to the engineering 

 school with the notion that he is to be 

 filled up with a lot of technical knowl- 

 edge, the items of which will be used by 

 him when he is a practising engineer. He 

 seems unable to comprehend that he is in 

 college to acquire mastery over his own 

 powers. He is eager for useful facts and 

 of course he forgets most of those he 

 learns not a great while after leaving col- 

 lege. The forgetting is to be assumed. 

 Under such conditions the task before the 

 teacher of mathematics, and quite as well 

 before the teacher of engineering, is to do 

 his utmost to train his student to think 

 logically and accurately about things. To 

 this end there seems to me nothing so effi- 

 cient as the solution of a large number of 

 carefully chosen problems. Indeed what is 

 one's life, if it be active, except meeting a 

 never ending succession of problems which 

 must be solved if success is to be gained? 

 If you can teach your student to take 

 vigorous hold of a problem, to first as- 

 semble all the facts which bear on the 

 question, then from the facts to reason 

 logically to a sound and safe conclusion, 

 you have started him well whether his aim 

 he engineering or otherwise. 



Of transcendent importance is the 

 teacher, his personality, his attitude toward 

 his work, his knowledge of his students, 

 not as a class, but of each as a human 

 being. If we can procure the teacher who 

 can idealize his work, who can show sus- 



tained enthusiasm for it and perform 

 cheerfully the drudgery we heard men- 

 tioned a few minutes ago, we can safely 

 leave detailed methods to him. Whatever 

 methods such a man adopts in the class- 

 room are likely to be effective. 



Feed W. McNair 

 Michigan College of Mines 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM OF NATURAL 

 HISTORY 



On July 28 a deputation, which included 

 Mr. ]?. Darwin (Cambridge), Professor Cossar 

 Ewart (Edinburgh), Professor Sedgwick 

 (Cambridge), Dr. Marr (Cambridge), Pro- 

 fessor Hickson (Manchester), Professor 

 Bourne (Oxford) and Professor Graham Kerr 

 (Glasgow), waited on the Prime Minister 

 (Et. Hon. H. H. Asquith, KC, M.P.) in 

 support of a petition sent to the late Prime 

 Minister last autumn requesting that advan- 

 tage should be taken of the present vacancy 

 in the directorship of the Natural History 

 Museum to hold an inquiry into the methods 

 by which the museum is governed. The 

 deputation was introduced by Sir W. Anson, 

 M.P., Mr. Eawlinson, M.P., and Sir H. Craik, 

 M.P. 



According to the account in Nature, Pro- 

 fessor Sedgwick said that zoologists thought 

 it desirable to at once call the attention of 

 the government to the desirability of insti- 

 tuting an inquiry into the methods of admin- 

 istration of the Natural History Museum, and 

 that, if necessary, a widely signed memorial 

 could be sent later on. In concluding a very 

 full statement, Professor Sedgwick said: 



We are here to ask for a full official inquiry 

 into the organization and administration of the 

 Natural History Museum with a view to a reason- 

 able treatment of the matter in the immediate 

 future by his majesty's government. 



Mr. Prancis Darwin especially referred to 

 the subordination of Cromwell Boad to 

 Bloomsbury. He said: 



Quite apart from the welfare of the Natural 

 History Museum, it seems unfair to expect of the 

 principal librarian that he should be responsible 

 for Cromwell Eoad in addition to his other heavy 



