May 18, 1006.] 



SCIENCE. 



769 



pleasure of listening to it. It wag pub- 

 lished in full in the issue of Science for 

 January 19, 1906, and will be found on 

 page 92. It was also published in the 

 January issue of the Stevens histitute In- 

 dicator (Vol. XXIII., p. 7). The author 

 quoted Mr. Walter C. Kerr, in connection 

 with his work as trustee of Cornell Uni- 

 versity, as being in favor of the plan that 

 a professor shall be thrown upon his own 

 resources and be compelled to work in the 

 practical field one year out of seven. It 

 seems that the author was misinformed as 

 to Mr. Kerr's real meaning, and that Mr. 

 Kerr has called his attention to the matter 

 in a letter which will be found in the April 

 issue of the Stevens Institute hidicator. 

 Mr. Kerr explains his ideas at some length, 

 and includes a memorandum on the sub- 

 ject which he made to President Schurman. 

 Eight other letters are included commend- 

 ing the substance of this address and plead- 

 ing for the more intimate connection of 

 engineering professors with actual prac- 

 tise. 



It gives the secretary much pleasure to 

 state that the Society for the Promotion 

 of Engineering Education has decided to 

 meet at Ithaca June 29 to July 3 as an 

 'affiliated society' of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science. 

 It is probable that one or more joint ses- 

 sions will be held with Section D during 

 the meeting. In view of this, the sectional 

 committee has decided that there shall be 

 a summer meeting of Section D. The 

 members of the association are requested 

 to submit their papers by abstract at as 

 early a day as possible. Papera on the 

 science of engineering education, its prob- 

 lems and its advances, and on municipal 

 ownership from the engineering point of 

 view, are especially requested. 



Wm. T. Mageuder. 

 Ohio State Uniyebsity, 

 Columbus, Ohio. 



PA^^AMA: A DISCUSSION OF PRESENT 

 CONDITIONS AND THE PROSPECT.'- 



When a certain prominent member of 

 the engineer corps returned to New York 

 in the fall, after a year's residence at 

 Panama, he declared the working force on 

 the isthmus was badly demoralized on 

 account of the defection of native labor, 

 the resignation of John F. Wallace, the 

 yellow-fever scares, and the excessive 

 humidity, which decreases one's vital en- 

 ergy in the tropics fully fifty per cent. 

 It is now about eight months, he said, since 

 Wallace resigned, and the Shouts Commis- 

 sion, with Stevens as chief engineer, took 

 hold of the work. In May, 1905, the yard- 

 age excavated had dropped to 70,000, as 

 compared with 130,000 in April. The 

 figures for June showed a further retro- 

 gression. Accordingly, by order of Chief 

 Engineer Stevens, all work was stopped on 

 the canal excavations, and the energies of 

 the force were diverted to sanitative work 

 —the building of houses for the men, cis- 

 terns and pipe-lines and reservoirs for 

 drinking-water, sewers to drain a country 

 which has been innocent of sewer-systems 

 and plumbing for four centuries. This is 

 the work which the distinguished engineer 

 and canal commissioner, George S. Morison, 

 said would have to be done ta advance of 

 canal excavation, and he allowed two years 

 for it. Governor Magoon has built a reser- 

 voir twelve miles from Panama and in- 

 stalled a first-class system of water-works. 

 Two thousand houses of the French have 

 been repaired, new barracks built, and Dr. 

 Gorgas has been doing a magnificent work 

 in eradicating the breeding-places of the 

 mosquito, and purging the whole region of 

 the agglomerated filth of the Spanish oc- 

 cupation. 



The necessary action of Chief Engineer 



' Read at the New Orleans Meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 Tuesday, January 2, 1906. 



