October 30, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



607 



be expended in developing agricultural experi- 

 ments in the field, barn, orchard, shop and 

 garden. The Tishomingo School has 120 acres 

 of land and the Warner School, 160 acres. 

 These and the other similar schools in the state 

 ■will be under the supervision of the state com- 

 mission of agricultural and industrial educa- 

 tion, which consists of the state superintendent 

 of public instruction, the president of the state 

 board of agriculture and the president of the 

 AgTicultural and Mechanical College. The 

 Murray School will open this fall and will be 

 in session eight months. 



Dr. Albert Eoss Hill will be inaugurated 

 as president of the University of Missouri on 

 December 10. The principal speaker will be 

 Dr. J. G. Schurman, president of Cornell 

 University. 



Mr. E. J. H. DeLoaoh, botanist to the 

 Georgia Experiment Station, has resigned to 

 accept a professorship of cotton industry in 

 the State Agricultural College at Athens. 



The following appointments have been made 

 in the philosophical department of the Uni- 

 versity of Michigan: DeWitt H. Parker, 

 Ph.D. (Harvard) to be instructor in philos- 

 ophy; F. C. Dockeray, A.B. (Mich.), and 

 Elmer C. Adams, A.B. (Mich.), to be assist- 

 ants in psychology. 



Instructors at the University of Cincinnati 

 iave been appointed as follows : Harry Louis 

 Wieman, biology; Charles N. Moore, mathe- 

 matics; Taylor S. Carter, physics; Joseph 

 Eugene Eoot, civil engineering; Howard A. 

 Dorsey, mechanical engineering, and Murrell 

 Edwards, physical education. 



Mr. a. E. Brown, who recently returned 

 from an anthropological expedition to •'he 

 Andaman Islands, has been elected to a fellow- 

 ■ship at Trinity College, Cambridge. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 

 THE TEACHING OP MATHEMATICS TO ENGINEERS 



To THE Editor of Science : Doubtless many 

 physics teachers in our technical schools and 

 universities have followed with great interest 

 the spirited discussion on the teaching of 

 mathematics to students of engineering, re- 

 cently published in Science, and I have been 



wondering if any of them had the same un- 

 comfortable feeling which I had while listen- 

 ing to some of the criticisms. Again and 

 again I could not heli) but think of a well- 

 known biblical quotation about the mote and 

 the beam. Professor Eranlilin's letter, Oc- 

 tober 2, shows that I do not stand alone in 

 this matter. 



Aside from actual deficiencies in the 

 knowledge of mathematics depending upon 

 local conditions and personal aptitude, it is 

 apparent that our students beginning engi- 

 neering subjects show often a deplorable lack 

 of ability to express practical problems in 

 mathematical form and to properly interpret 

 the results after the formal operations upon 

 the mathematical equations have been com- 

 pleted. As Professor Slichter says : " They 

 very generally lack the power to do anything 

 with the mathematics they have been taught." 

 The statement that mathematics is nothing 

 but a tool for the future engineer means that 

 it is only the teaching of the mere mechanical 

 operations enabling the student to solve cer- 

 tain equations. Whoever uses the phrase in 

 this sense confounds the tools of mathematics 

 which he borrows from it, with the science 

 itself, and it would be better for him to study 

 a little more real mathematics. 



I believe, however, that we all agree that 

 it is highly desirable that our students in 

 engineering should obtain a greater skill in 

 handling these tools, falsely called mathe- 

 matics. But who is responsible for their lack 

 of skill? Considering the small amount of 

 time allotted to mathematics in many of our 

 schools, the blame can not well be placed upon 

 the teachers of this science alone; it is a 

 severe impeachment of the teachers of engi- 

 neering and — of the teachers of physics. 



It seems remarkable that only in a few 

 instances during the whole discussion was 

 any mention made of physics. Do the stu- 

 dents pass directly from mathematics to the 

 purely engineering courses? If so, it is a 

 grave mistake. Students taking elementary 

 mathematics have very little knowledge of 

 physical facts and it was well said : " To 

 illustrate a new mathematical principle by an 

 application to a science with which a student 



