January 21, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



89 



really only during the past thirty-five 

 years that the modem society has existed. 



The American Society of Civil Engi- 

 neers was founded in 1852 and held meet- 

 ings until 1855, when there was a gap until 

 reorganized in 1867. This society now 

 numbers 4,847 members in all grades. 



The American Institute of Mining Engi- 

 neers was organized in 1871, the American 

 Society of Mechanical Engineers as late as 

 1880 and the American Institute of Elec- 

 trical Engineers in 1884. 



In England, the first society of engineers 

 was a club organized in 1771 by Smeaton 

 and a few others who met at a tavern. 

 Twenty years later it consisted of nearly 

 twenty members, but of these only fifteen 

 were engineers. A personal difficulty broke 

 up the club, but it was reorganized a year 

 later and existed as late as 1872. 



The present Institution of Civil Engi- 

 neers was an outgrowth from this society 

 and was established January 18, 1818, the 

 renowned Telford being the first president 

 and holding that office from 1820 to 1834. 

 Telford built roads and bridges, canals, 

 river works, docks and lighthouses, drained 

 fens and reclaimed the land from the sea. 

 The railroad era was just beginning, and 

 also that of the water supply, gas lighting 

 and drainage of cities. In the time of 

 Telford the institution never numbered 

 more than 200 members, but between 1840 

 and 1860 two of the leading English rail- 

 road engineers, Robert Stephenson and I. 

 K. Brunei, probably each had a corps of 

 trained engineers under his control as 

 large as the whole membership of the in- 

 stitution in its early days. The institution 

 now has a total membership of 8,627 in all 

 grades. This institution was the first pro- 

 fessional body to publish discussions of its 

 papers, others, like the Royal Society, pub- 

 lishing only the papers themselves. 



At the time of the declaration of inde- 



pendence there were only two professional 

 schools in the United States— the Medical 

 College in Philadelphia (afterwards the 

 Medical School of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania) and the Medical School of King's 

 College (afterward Columbia University). 

 The Harvard Medical School was estab- 

 lished in 1782 by the appointment of Dr. 

 John Warren as professor of anatomy and 

 surgery. During the last century, med- 

 ical schools sprang up with great rapidity, 

 both connected with universities and inde- 

 pendent, many of them with very low 

 standards. In 1870, Harvard was the first 

 to demand a new and much higher stand- 

 ard, followed only a few yeare ago by 

 further raising the standard by requiring 

 a college degree, or its equivalent, for en- 

 trance. 



The first law school in America was not 

 connected with any college and was estab- 

 lished in 1784 at Litchfield, Conn., but was 

 discontinued in 1833. The Harvard Law 

 School was established in 1817, being the 

 earliest connected with a university and 

 authorized to confer degrees in law. In 

 1897 it was made a graduate school for 

 which a college degree was required for en- 

 trance, or a degree of proficiency sufficient 

 for entrance into the senior class at Har- 

 vard. 



The Yale Law School was established in 

 1824 ; that of the University of Virginia in 

 1825, of the University of Cincinnati in 

 1833 and of Columbia University in 1858. 

 In 1878, there were fifty law schools in the 

 United States with a total of 3,012 stu- 

 dents; in 1901 there were 86 law schools 

 with a total of 11,883 students. 



The first engineering school in this coun- 

 try was the Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti- 

 tute at Troy, which was organized in 1824. 

 The Lawrence Scientific School of Har- 

 vard and the Sheffield Scientific School 

 of Tale were organized in 1847, and these 



