282 
molecules, doomed to unending single ex- 
istence? Can these be changed atoms of 
some of our well-known elements, a step 
nearer to the primal elements and with the 
electrical charge lost? Is it possible for us 
to bring about these changes? May we 
not unwittingly have done so at some time 
or other in the past? Is it possible to re- 
store the electrical charge to such atoms, 
and so to place them once more on a foot- 
ing of equality with elements of the con- 
ventional type? These and many other 
questions surge through the mind as one 
thinks of these wonderful gases. Perhaps 
the coming century will unfold the answers. 
F. P. VENABLE. 
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
ENGINEERING EDUCATION AS A PRELIMI- 
NARY TRAINING FOR SCIENTIFIC 
RESEARCH WORK.* 
Av first thought it might seem that the 
subject chosen for this address is of such a 
nature that it should have been made the 
basis of a paper before the Society for the 
Promotion of Engineering Education. I 
admit that it would not have been out of 
place there, but at the same time I am of 
the opinion that such an address also forms, 
as it were, a bridge from our special engi- 
neering section to the purposes of the gen- 
eral Association. It will show that the 
work and the attainments of the engineer 
form an important and integral part of the 
scientific work of to-day. 
As you no doubt know, there has been for 
some time general and strong misgivings as 
to the future of this section of the As- 
sociation, and many have expressed the 
opinion that engineers and professors of 
engineering ought not to belong to the 
American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, as the work of the engineer and 
the pure scientist are of such a very differ- 
* Address of the Vice-President before the Section 
of Mechanical Science and Engineering, American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, 1899. 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. X. No. 244. 
ent nature. It must, of course, be granted 
that the work of most practicing engineers 
is Only distantly related to the work of the 
members of this Association belonging to the 
various sections, with the exception of D. 
But, on the other hand, a great many of the 
practicing engineers and of the professors of 
engineering do truly scientific work, and, 
what is more, in the opinion of the speaker, 
the preliminary training of the engineer is 
perhaps the best yet found to educate a 
man for future scientific research work. 
These facts have led the speaker to 
believe that a consideration of the sub- 
ject announced might perhaps increase the 
interest in Section D, and possibly thereby 
help to prevent its disappearance, which, to 
many of us, has seemed both imminent and 
deplorable. 
Presumably our friends, the pure scien- 
tists, will shake their heads significantly 
when they read the title of this address, 
and if any of them should happen to 
hear it, or later read it, they might per- 
haps even go so far as to bestow a smile of 
pity on us poor engineers, ete., who have 
such a high opinion of our own worth. 
But even if none of our scientific brethren 
should be converted, the speaker would feel 
satisfied with the results should he succeed 
in giving more confidence to the members 
of the engineering profession in its broad 
sense as possessing the necessary training 
for accurate and important scientific re- 
search work. 
The proposition which I expect to defend 
in this address is that engineering edu- 
eation as furnished in the best technical 
schools of the world, together with the 
training obtained later in life asa practicing 
engineer, probably furnishes the best pre- 
liminary preparation for the successful 
prosecution of scientific research work. I 
am now speaking of the preliminary train- 
ing; the special knowledge of the subject 
in which the research work is to be done. 
