Septembee 14, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



331 



vided they get the information they need 

 in order to pass the examination. Quite a 

 large number of students taking our 

 courses in marine engineering never send 

 in any work at all. They simply take 

 their bound volumes, study from them, 

 pass the examination, and get their license 

 for one of the different grades of engineer. 

 Several years ago, the writer had consid- 

 erable correspondence with the assistant 

 foreman of the boiler department of the 

 Richmond Locomotive Works. He was 

 very enthusiastic regarding his work, and 

 organized a class of about thirty-five per- 

 sons employed in the boiler department, 

 most of whom enrolled with us for our 

 sheet-metal pattern drafting course. The 

 superintendent and other officials of the 

 company took great interest in his work, 

 and furnished a room where the class could 

 meet, and furnished desks, tables and other 

 material, and encouraged the men gener- 

 ally in connection with their courses of 

 study. The results, according to the as- 

 sistant foreman, were extremely satisfac- 

 tory. However, he did not furnish me 

 with the names of any of the class until 

 about two years after the correspondence 

 was begun. I looked up the record of 

 these students, and found that not a single 

 one of them had ever sent in any work to 

 us for correction. At the same time they 

 were getting great benefit from their 

 courses, and were entirely satisfied with 

 them. 



A careful examination of the records of 

 a large number of students, for a number 

 of years, indicates that about 60 .per cent. 

 of them send in one or more pieces of 

 work. An examination of the records of 

 our accounting department shows that 

 about two thirds of the students pay in 

 full for their courses. These facts force 

 us to the conclusion that if a student does 

 not pay, he does not study. There is no 



connection between the instruction depart- 

 ment and the accounting department. 

 Any student who sends in work on a paper 

 will have his work corrected, and will have 

 any questions answered that he may send 

 us, regardless of whether he has paid for 

 his course or whether he is a delinquent. 

 At the same time, it is a fact that if a 

 student does not pay, he does not study; 

 while, if he does pay, as a rule, he does at 

 least a certain amount of studying. There- 

 fore, while our present total enrolment is 

 a little over 900,000, it is not fair to count 

 the actual number of students as being 

 over about 60 per cent, of this, or about 

 540,000. From the figures and statistics 

 prepared last month, we estimated that 

 533,000 students had sent in work on the 

 examination questions of one or more in- 

 struction papers. From June 1, 1905, to 

 May 31, 1906, the work on the examination 

 questions of 517,849 instruction papers was 

 corrected; 192,739 drawings were correct- 

 ed; and 6,364 phonograph records, made 

 by students in our language courses, were 

 received and examined. The total number 

 of pieces of work during this period, re- 

 ceived from students, was, therefore, 716,- 

 952. 



We compiled, about a year ago, a book 

 giving the names, addresses and records of 

 students who had completed about one 

 third or more of their courses. There was 

 excluded from this list those students 

 taking a single subject, such as arithmetic, 

 algebra, bookkeeping, etc., and also all the 

 students in our school of electrotherapeu- 

 tics—a total altogether of 40,261 names. 

 The average enrolment during the period 

 when the names were being taken off was 

 798,960. Hence, the number of students, 

 living and dead, who might have been in- 

 cluded in the book was 758,700. Taking 60 

 per cent, of these as active students, the 

 number to be so counted is 455,220. The 



