414 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1165 



given, and an examjile is worked out from as- 

 sumed constants. 



The paper is of a preliminary character, in- 

 tended to open up the general problem and suggest 

 what may be expected by a more exhaustive study 

 from the experimental standpoint. 

 Medical Engineering : P. A. Maignen. 



Medical engineering is defined as medicine 

 viewed from the angle of engineering. 



The author refers to the great interest mani- 

 fested in our days in sanitary science (preventive 

 medicine) and in medical subjects generally. 



He defines engineering and points out the neces- 

 sity for the engineer to be ingenious. 



The various divisions of therapeutics — natural, 

 applied, empirical and rational — are referred to. 



Serum therapeutics is criticized. 



The excessive fear of microbes is disapproved, 

 but it must be recognized that more than half the 

 diseases are of bacterial origin and that we must 

 declare war against the bacteria, and carry it on 

 with appropriate weapons on the surfaces without 

 injuring the healthy tissues. 



The author points out the procrastination of the 

 sick, and the desirability of the state paying the 

 physicians in civil life, as it already pays the army 

 and navy surgeons. The education of the people 

 in the rudiments of antiseptic therapeutics is also 

 recommended. 



The discovery of an effective, non-poisonous 

 germicide is explained, and it is suggested that 

 antiseptic surgery, which has been somewhat neg- 

 lected of late, will return to the front. 



He gives the formula of the new antiseptic, 

 which is 35 times stronger than carbolic acid and 

 may be taken internally in the respiratory and ali- 

 mentary tracts. 



A few words about tuberculosis and cancer close 

 the paper. 

 Mathematical Education for Civil Engineers : D. J. 



McAdam. 



The paper does not undertake to discuss the 

 mathematical curriculum in our engineering schools 

 as a whole, but points out some defects in the 

 teaching of the standard subjects, algebra, the 

 geometries, the trigonometries and calculus. 



These defects are: (1) Wrong or defective state- 

 ment and development of the fundamental proposi- 

 tions such as, for instance, in the definition and 

 development of the trigonometric functions in 

 trigonometry, and the proof of the rules for dif- 

 ferentiation in calculus. (2) Insisting on second- 

 ary rules and formula with as much zeal as on the 

 primary and fundamental. For instance, the mul- 



tiplicity of formulae in plane trigonometry, which 

 should be developed from half a dozen, and in 

 spherical trigonometry, which could be developed 

 from less than half a dozen. (3) Burdening the 

 student with useless details. Thus, in algebra he 

 is required to commit the quotient having given 

 dividend and divisor, and he is to remember four 

 rules for solving a quadratic trinomial instead of 

 one. 



The Effect of Such Teaching. — (1) The student 

 is made to carry in his mind — temporarily — such a 

 mass of detail that he proceeds to forget it all, in- 

 cluding the fundamentals. 



(2) The student fails to get a mathematical edu- 

 cation at all. He fails to grasp the true mathe- 

 matical import who does not find in it a means of 

 taking a few fundamental principles and with 

 them working wonders. 



(3) Such study of mathematics defeats the aim 

 of even those who would have mathematics studied 

 as a means of discipline. No study can be truly 

 disciplinary which instead of awakening love and 

 enthusiasm, begets discouragement and disgust. 



The Semedy. — If teachers insist on following the 

 text-book, then the remedy is in having prepared 

 sets of books, which would present only funda- 

 mental propositions as primary, and give these sec- 

 ondary propositions as exercises. 



In the calculus it is suggested that we have a 

 set of small volumes, the first developing the funda- 

 mental propositions, the other volumes, each after 

 unfolding the fundamentals, should follow this 

 with problems wholly worked by the calculus. 

 Apparatus and Process for the Treatment of West- 

 ern Grown Flax Straw for the Manufacture of 

 Paper: George D. Bitrton. 

 State Engineering Experiment Station and Govern- 

 ment Promotion of Industrial Research: Phine- 

 HAS V. Stephens. 



This paper discusses a system of state industrial 

 research in state engineering experiment stations 

 connected with a well organized and equipped engi- 

 neering school and established under federal aid 

 and supervision. The stations to be also supported 

 and directed by the state for the purpose of prose- 

 cuting research in pure and applied science relating 

 to industrial development, transportation, sanita- 

 tion, irrigation, the utilization of our natural re- 

 sources and the general problems of public welfare. 

 The system includes the actual cooperation of the 

 Department of Commerce and also that of engi- 

 neering and scientific societies, manufacturers, 

 foundations and individuals interested in scientific 

 and industrial development. 



