68 
trained as engineers and have a fairly generous 
knowledge of physics, with only a smattering 
of chemistry, mineralogy and geology ; yet fol- 
lowing the example of the French engineers, 
which I have elsewhere mentioned, they seem 
to have a propensity for the discussion of the 
origin and properties of bitumens, a discussion 
which involves some of the most intricate 
problems in the sciences above mentioned now 
engaging the attention ofscientific men. Hence, 
it is not strange, that outside the engineering 
problems which it treats intelligently, this book 
should be a chaotic jumble, brought together 
without chronological arrangement, without 
order as to the natural divisions of subjects, 
and discussed without discrimination and with- 
out satisfactory result. These defects of judg- 
ment and purpose would have been greatly 
mitigated if Mr. Tillson had not committed two 
unpardonable offences as an author. First, he 
cites from authors all over the world without 
giving in a single instance reference to the 
original memoirs, by which a reader can verify 
or extend the passage cited. Second, he has 
attributed to authors cited, language that they 
have never used, by substituting for the author’s 
language his own abstract or paraphrase. In 
illustration, see page 43, where he patches up a 
definition of ‘bitumen’ by ‘transposing Pro- 
fessor Sadtler’s words and adding some of Mr. 
Richardson’s.’ He puts this patchwork that 
neither Sadtler nor Richardson would recognize, 
in quotation marks. From whom is it quoted ? 
Again, on page 53, he quotes from my ‘ Tenth 
Census Report.’ I read the passage with amaze- 
ment. I knewI had never used such language. 
When I turned to the report I found that Mr. 
Tillson had substituted his own paraphrase for 
the language used by myself and had enclosed 
it in quotation marks. Comment on such atro- 
cious work is unnecessary. 
It would require too much time and space to 
show in detail all the blunders that are found 
in the nearly 40 pages devoted to ‘ Asphalt.’ 
One other must suffice. This book is infested 
with the ill-disguised fallacy that material from 
the Trinidad Pitch Lake is superior to all other 
for street pavements. The old threadbare story 
of Highth Avenue is rehearsed, ete. 
I regret the necessity of such unqualified con- 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Vou. XIII. No. 315. 
demnation of much of this book ; but the char- 
acter of the criticism results from the nature of 
the case. Ithink I am safe in assuming that no 
railroad corporation would employ a chemist to 
construct a skew-arched bridge. 
8. F. PEcKHAM. 
American Education and What Shall It Be? 
Preliminary Report of the Committee of the 
Society for the Promotion of Engineering 
Education ; made at the New York Meeting, 
July 2, 38, 1900. Reprinted, with discussion, 
from the Annual Volume of Proceedings ; H. 
S. Jacopy, Secretary, Ithaca, N. Y. 8vo. 
Pp. 74. Price, 25 cents. 
One of the speakers in the discussion began 
with the remark that this report marks an era 
in its department, that it was the first document 
of the sort which, so far as he had observed, 
recognized the fact that there may be ‘many 
educations.’ While it may not be the fact that 
the publication of this report was the first recog- 
nition of the necessity of various educations for 
various sorts and conditions of men,* it is prob- 
ably the first in which the fact of a variety of 
educations as a need of the time being recog- 
nized by authority is itself noted. The docu- 
ment is a reprint, from the transactions of the 
Society, of the report of a committee consisting 
of six representative educators in applied 
science and technical subjects, selected from 
representative institutions at Madison, St. 
Louis, Ithaca, Minneapolis, Boston and Phila- 
delphia, who were requested to endeavor to 
give formal expression to the views held by 
them collectively on the question above quoted 
in the title of the paper thus prepared. 
Space does not here permit of the presenta- 
tion of any full abstract of the report, which is 
one which should be carefully read by every 
educator—and by our legislators even more 
carefully, if possible. The discussion is no less 
suggestive and invaluable than the report; a 
considerable number of well-known teachers 
and engineers taking part. 
* The Mechanic Arts and Modern Educations,’ an 
address delivered at Richmond, Va., before the Me- 
chanics’ Institute of Virginia, by R. H. Thurston, 
May 18, 1894, Richmond, Va. William Ellis Jones. 
1894. 12mo. Pp. 23. 
