SCIENCE 



Friday, August 9, 1912 



CONTENTS 

 The Eelation of Electrical Engineering to 

 other Professions : Gano Dunn 161 



Honorary Degrees at the University of 

 Michigan 166 



The Funeral of M. Henri Poincar^ 167 



Scientific Notes and News 168 



Vnimersity and Educational News 171 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 

 Zoological Nomenclature : Professor J. S. 

 KiNGSLEY. Dome Theories as applied to 

 Gulf Coast Geology: Professor G. D. 

 Harris 171 



University Control: — 

 Letters from Cornell University; Letters 

 from the University of Chicago 174 



Scientific BooTcs: — 

 Nutting's Outlines of Applied Optics: Pro- 

 fessor W. LeConte Stevens. Scharff on 

 the Distribution and Origin of Life in Amer- 

 ica: Professor Alexander G. Ruthven. 

 Meoent Antarctic Wcyrk: Dr. W. H. Dall . 186 



Special Articles: — 



A Case of Sex-linked Inheritance in the 

 Domestic Pigeon: Professor Leon J. Cole. 

 The Intertubercular or Bicipital Foramen 

 of the Humerus of the Guinea-pig: Pro- 

 fessor Leonard W. Williams 190 



MSS. Intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrisoa-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



TEE EELATION OF ELECTRICAL ENGI- 

 NEERING TO OTHER PROFESSIONS'- 

 On the wall of a great engineering li- 

 brary is the legend "Engineering is the 

 art of organizing and directing men, and of 

 controlling the forces and materials of na- 

 ture for the benefit of the human race." 

 This is broad and all-embracing, but other 

 professions will find it hard succes-sfully to 

 quarrel with it. While the immediate ob- 

 ject of engineering is a material one, engi- 

 neers draw from many different channels 

 of human energy, such as generalship, com- 

 merce, psychology, mechanics, economics, 

 to say nothing of chemistry and physics 

 and many others, all under an interpreta- 

 tion, insight and method that are best de- 

 scribed by the term scientific. 



It may be asked. Why could not a simi- 

 lar statement of embrasure or scope apply 

 to medicine, the law, the army and other 

 professions? In part it could, but it is to 

 engineering that it applies preeminently. 

 The subject-matter of the older professions, 

 the things about which they busy them- 

 selves, and the objects they seek to accom- 

 plish have changad relatively little in many 

 centuries. The means have altered but the 

 ends persist. They are approximately the 

 same to-day as they have been throughout 

 history and tradition. With engineering 

 it is different. There was no such profes- 

 sion a hundred and fifty years ago, and if 

 I may a little anticipate my conclusion, 

 there will be no such profession a hundred 

 and fifty years hence in respect to a large 

 part of what we now call engineering. 



'President's, address presented at the twenty- 

 ninth annual convention of the American Institute 

 of Electrical Engineers, Boston, Mass., June 25, 

 1912. 



