July 26, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



117 



present, Dr. George I. Adams, of the United 

 States Geological Survey, having been re- 

 cently appointed to the chair of geology and 

 mining, and Dr. H. V. Fuller, of Ziirich Uni- 

 versity, to the chair of chemistry. Next year 

 the professorship of railway engineering will 

 be vacant, but only properly qualified persons 

 should apply, as the university, though small, 

 maintains a high standard and the salary of- 

 fered is sufficient to command the services of 

 able and experienced men. I have xeceived 

 many applications for positions which do not 

 exist, and beg to point out that, as stated in 

 Science, March 1, 1912, the professorships 

 now filled by foreigners are : law, two ; eco- 

 nomics and history, one; chemistry, one; geol- 

 ogy and mining, one; metallurgy, one; civil 

 engineering, two; mechanical engineering, 

 one; railroad engineering, one. As stated 

 above, none of these are now vacant. There 

 are no professorships in mathematics, physics, 

 biology, zoology, botany, agriculture, peda- 

 gogy and kindred subjects, nor are any likely 

 to be created. 



Thomas T. Eead 

 San Francisco, Cal. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Technology and Industrial Ejficiency. A 

 Series of Papers Presented at the Congress 

 of Technology, opened in Boston, Mass., 

 April 10, 1911, in Celebration of the 

 Fiftieth Anniversary of the Granting of a 

 Charter to the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology. McGraw-Hill Book Company. 

 1911. Pp. 486. 



This volume of papers, covering a large va- 

 riety of topics in applied science, derives its 

 interest possibly as much from the occasion 

 which has called it forth, as from its contents. 

 The charter of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology was signed by Governor Andrew 

 on April 10, 1861. The fiftieth anniversary 

 of this event was taken advantage of for the 

 inauguration of a congress of technology 

 which lasted through several days, and to 

 which the public was invited, to listen to the 

 reading of papers contributed by graduates 

 and professors of the institute. 



The occasion was thus, in some degree, a 

 celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the 

 institute, and a demonstration, so far as it 

 was needed, of the prominent position in ap- 

 plied science which had been won by it and 

 by its graduates. 



It is an interesting question, in how short 

 a time may an institution of learning, with- 

 out substantial state aid or endowment, de- 

 pendent almost wholly upon its own resources 

 and the merits of what it has to offer, attain 

 to a commanding position among institutions 

 of learning? The lesson which has been 

 taught by the institute is, in this respect, most 

 instructive. Here is an institution which, in 

 the short space of considerably less than fifty 

 years, has become one of the leading institu- 

 tions of its kind in this country or in the 

 world, and it has attained this position solely 

 by its own merits and exertions, with a small 

 endowment, with little aid from the state — 

 until within a very few years — and obliged 

 to depend, therefore, for its maintenance and 

 progress upon the tuition fees from students 

 and such scattering gifts as it might receive 

 from time to time. This position of leader- 

 ship has already been held by the institute for 

 at least fifteen or twenty years, so that from 

 the date of the first small beginnings, when 

 the classes met in hired quarters in the busi- 

 ness section of the city of Boston, the school 

 has developed in a third of a century into a 

 position of unquestioned leadership. 



Under these conditions it is not unnatural 

 that its graduates, faculty and corporation 

 should take advantage of the fiftieth anniver- 

 sary of its birth to celebrate the progress 

 which has been made. The papers presented 

 at the congress have been edited and collected 

 in the volume referred to above. 



These papers, covering, as they do, the whole 

 field of applied science, differ widely in char- 

 acter and subject. There are but few on any 

 one topic, and the specialist will find but 

 little in the volume to enlarge his detailed 

 knowledge. Nevertheless, the papers have 

 been kept somewhat non-technical in form 

 and designed to be of general interest to the 

 applied scientist, and this object has been ad- 



