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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 721 



that the question is a grave one and that it 

 should be faced before it is too late. We 

 should try to avoid waste and unnecessary 

 destruction and we should also try to make 

 the best possible use of all of our resources. 

 It will be the work of the engineer to ac- 

 complish both of these objects, and it wiD 

 also be his province to determine new ways 

 of accomplishing results now so wastefuUy 

 performed. In the past the engineer has 

 been concerned in getting results. If 

 the results were obtained, the waste and 

 destruction of the natural product have 

 scarcely been considered, but in the future, 

 economy of the natural product as well as 

 economy in the final result must receive 

 careful attention. I believe the engineers 

 of the country are capable of solving these 

 problems, and that if they are given the 

 necessary governmental and private aid 

 that the problem of the conservation of our 

 natural resources will be solved. 



The engineering colleges of the country 

 will also have a share in this work. They 

 are training the engineers of the future 

 and from now on they must train them 

 with this problem in view. They must not 

 only give them the principles of engineer- 

 ing practise, but they must show them how 

 the work of the engineer can be carried out 

 with a view of transmitting to our posterity 

 the natural resources in, so far as possible, 

 an unimpaired condition. As has been 

 pointed out in this paper, the conservation 

 of some of our natural resources must be 

 accomplished through new inventions. This 

 means that the engineer of the future must 

 be able to do more than the simple engi- 

 neering work which comes to him from day 

 to day. He must be so thoroughly trained 

 in the principles of science and applied 

 mechanics that he will be able to discover 

 new processes and accomplish old results in 

 new and more economical ways. He must 

 be taught more thoroughly than ever before 

 how to unite theoretical and practical 



knowledge. In short, he must be able to 

 think along scientific and engineering lines. 

 This is the most difficult thing which the 

 engineering college has to teach. There 

 are so many subjects in the curriculum, 

 so much that is necessary for the engineer 

 to learn, that he has not had the proper 

 time to digest this mass of ma,terial. I feel 

 convinced that this problem of teaching 

 the student to think, of giving him the 

 power to solve things for himself, has for 

 many years received the earnest attention 

 of the members of this society, but in view 

 of the problem which I am discussing to- 

 day, I wish to urge upon all who teach in 

 our colleges the importance of giving it 

 still more attention. Engineering science 

 is progressive, the subjects taught in our 

 engineering schools are alive and not dead. 

 We shall grow, not only in knowledge, but 

 in methods, and we shall accomplish the 

 results we ought to accomplish and solve 

 the problems presented to us. 



Charles S. Howe 

 Case School of Applied Science, 

 Cleveland, Ohio 



THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF THE 

 RARER ELEMENTS^ 



In many of our courses in inorganic 

 chemistry we have placed in view charts 

 upon which the names of some eighty ele- 

 mentary substances appear. For one 

 reason or another more than one half of 

 these elements have remained to the ma- 

 jority of students little more than names; 

 whereas to-day we find many of them con- 

 testing positions of importance with the 

 better known elements on account either 

 of industrial utility or of pure scientific 

 interest. May I define then the rarer ele- 

 ments not as those necessarily rare in oc- 

 currence but rather as those not always 



^ Address of chairman of the Inorganic Section 

 at the New Haven meeting of the American 

 Chemical Society, June 30, 1908. 



