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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVI. No. 1188 



tures chiefly concerned witli divers nations of 

 Europe and the East now at war or likely 

 to be involved before long, including espe- 

 cially some of our less known and smaller 

 allies. The general plan of most of these 

 monographs will be a resume of earliest 

 known data, racial origins, shiftings and 

 blendings, historical development and present 

 status, aiming to further a more thorough 

 acquaintance with these peoples, their char- 

 ■ acteristics and capabilities and the causes 

 which have made them what they are. The 

 appended schedule may be subject to some 

 changes in detail as the season advances and 

 is now necessarily incomplete as to one or two 

 items, but will give a sufficient idea of what 

 is to be expected. The society meets at 4.30 

 P.M. in rooms 42-43 of the new building of 

 the National Museum on alternate Tuesdays, 

 beginning October 2d, 191Y. 



PROGRAM 



October 2. Dr. Ales Hrdlifika, Bohemia and the 

 Bohemians. 



October 16. Dr. Mitchell Carroll, The Story of 

 Greece. 



November 6. Professor James H. Gore, Bel- 

 gium. 



November 20. Mr. George J. Zolnay, Eoumania, 

 Past and Present. 



December 4. Dr. Amandus Johnson, Scandi- 

 navia; Mr. Juul Dieserud, Certaia Customs of Nor- 

 way. 



December 18. France. 



January 15. Dr. Voyslav M. Yovanovitch, 

 Serbia. 



January 29. Voyslav M. Yovanovitch, Italy. 



February 12. Dr. Joseph Dunn, Scotland. 



February 26. Dr. B. Israeli, Russia. 



March 12. Mr. E. T. Williams, The Origin of 

 China. 



March 26. Mr. E. T. Williams, Holland. 



April 9. Dr. Paul Haupt, Mesopotamia and 

 Palestine. 



AprU 22. Annual meeting and election of ofii- 

 cers. 



Some, perhaps, most, of these lectures will 

 be illustrated by lantern slides or otherwise. 

 The public will be welcome. 



Wm. H. Babcock, President 



EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON TECHNICAL 

 EDUCATION 



Walter Humphreys, registrar of the Massa- 

 chusetts Institute of Technology, has compiled 

 registration statistics which indicate the effects 

 of the war on technical education. The total 

 registration is between eighty-five and ninety 

 per cent, of what it was last year at the same 

 time. The freshman year shows an increase, 

 the percentage in terms of last year's figure 

 being 104, while the second, third and fourth 

 years classes are respectively 93 per cent., 75 

 per cent, and 86 per cent., of the number in the 

 school in June. 



The graduate students stand at 60 per cent, 

 of last year's figure. There is the most shrink- 

 age in the juniors, the sophomores of last year, 

 to whom two years more of schooling has per- 

 haps seemed a long time. The return of eighty- 

 six per cent, of the juniors to be seniors is evi- 

 dence in favor of the junior summer camp. 

 The purpose of this was to give some military 

 practise and an opportunity to anticipate 

 fourth-year studies, and complete work at an 

 earlier date. 



In a consideration of the effect on the courses 

 it n\ay be well to omit those with less than fifty 

 men, since the defection of a few students 

 makes an undue percentage shrinkage. One of 

 them, however, naval architecture, is stimu- 

 lated by the war, the increase being 16 per 

 cent. The course in naval architecture has al- 

 ways been small in attendance and has been 

 maintained by the institute as a contribution 

 to education. 



Of the larger courses civil engineering main- 

 tains practically the same figure as in former 

 years, the shrinkage being 1.2 per cent., while 

 electrical engineering opens the year with a 

 loss of only 2 per cent. Chemical engineering 

 has 12 per cent, increase. Engineering admin- 

 istration is practically holding its own, having 

 lost only six and one half per cent, since the last 

 registration. Architecture has declined nearly 

 one third in the nimiber of its students. Per- 

 haps the undue cost of building materials, fifty 

 to one hundred per cent, in many cases, and 

 the consequent gossip that building operations 

 will be at a standstill, has had its influence in 

 deterring young men from taking it up with 



