SCIENCE 



Friday, December 20, 1912 



CONTENTS 

 Academic Efficiency: Dr. William EIent ... 841 



The Problem of Organisation: Dk. Herbert 

 Band 850 



The Bequests of the late Morris Loeb 860 



Scientific Notes and News 860 



University and Educational News 864 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Dr. Ortmann's "Notes upon the Families 

 and Genera of the Najades" : Harold 

 Hannibal. Some BemarJcable Discoveries 

 regarding a Common Household Insect: 

 Professor Wm. A. Riley 864 



Scientific Boohs: — 



Muschler's Flora of Egypt: Professor 

 Charles E. Bessbt. Whitman's Gas- 

 engine Principles: Peofessor C. E. Jones 866 



Scientific Journals and Articles 



Condition of the Earth's Crust: George 

 E. Putnam 869 



Special Articles: — 



The Value of the Ciliate Didinium in the 

 Study of Biology: Professor S. O. Mast. 

 The Numbers of Iiisects destroyed by 

 Western Meadowlarlcs : Harold C. Bryant. 

 The Mosaic Disease of Tobacco: H. A. 

 Allard 871 



The Convocation Week Meeting of Scientific 

 Societies 876 



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

 review should be sent to Professor J. JIcKcen Cattell, Garrison- 

 on-HudsOD, N. Y. 



ACADEMIC EFFICIENCY'- 

 About ten years ago I was asked by the 

 president and general manager of a large 

 manufacturing corporation to advise him 

 how to improve the performance of his 

 boiler house. During the previous winter 

 it was pushed to its utmost to deliver 

 enough steam to run the engines and to 

 keep the buildings warm, and the next 

 winter, on account of extensions to the fac- 

 tory and increased output, the demand for 

 steam would be still greater. Before be- 

 ginning my work the president told me 

 something of the history of the company, 

 and of how he came to be the general man- 

 ager. It had grown in fifty years from a 

 small concern to a large one, occupying sev- 

 eral blocks of ground. The business was 

 the manufacture of a variety of shelf hard- 

 ware. He had for several years been a di- 

 rector and the manager of the sales de- 

 partment, and on the death of the former 

 factory manager the directors insisted on 

 his taking the place, although, as he said, he 

 knew nothing about running a factory. 

 He started in to learn how by calling in the 

 best outside expert advice available. He 

 was paying $10,000 for a year's services of 

 a highly skilled expert in machinery, jigs 

 and methods of manufacturing, who was 

 making a revolution in the shop, which 

 amply justified the high price paid for his 

 services. This man said he knew nothing 

 about boilers, and therefore I was called in 

 to tackle the boiler problem. Incidentally 

 the president told me that the catalogue of 

 the products made by the concern con- 



^ A paper presented at the Boston meeting of 

 the Society for the Promotion of Engineering 

 Education, June 28, 1912. 



