OCTOBER 1, 1897. ] 
fied our feeling as to this. The triumphs 
of the engineer in applying steam and elec- 
tricity are making of one blood all nations 
of the earth. But the one thing that is 
making and will make of usa nation worthy 
-of our heritage is our educational life. Our 
republican institutions, the pride of our 
early national life, cannot continue such 
except for the reinforcement and help to 
come from the enlarged scope of education 
to-day. 
It has seemed to me that I could not, 
perhaps, use the short time allotted to me 
for this address better than in trying to 
summarize some of the thoughts which have 
appeared in the papers and discussions be- 
fore this Society, which had its beginning 
in the Hngineering Congress of the Colum- 
bian Exposition at Chicago. What I have 
to say is called forth by the enlarged re- 
‘sponsibilities and new conception of the 
professional position of the engineer of to- 
‘day, and the course of study necessary to 
fit him for the responsibilities of his posi- 
tion. 
And, first of all, I think J am right in say- 
ing that the demand is growing stronger 
that courses of engineering instruction shall 
include nothing else, that is, that they shall 
be as completely professional in their char- 
acter as are professional courses in law and 
medicine. 
This demand is not made by the general 
public, nor to any great extent, I think, by 
practicioners in the engineering profession. 
‘These are greatly impressed with the ne- 
cessity the engineer has for general culture, 
and rightly so. The demand is one made 
py the engineering colleges themselves. 
At present the curriculum of our average 
engineering college includes from 20 to 25 
per cent. of culture studies, such as English, 
French and German; from 30 to 25 per 
cent. ofindirectly technical study, as Mathe- 
matics, Physics, etc.; and 50 per cent. of 
directly technical study. 
SCIENCE. 
503 
The culture studies are of fundamental 
importance to the engineer. He usually 
obtains far too small an amount of such 
study before graduation. He finds himself 
poorly fitted in this respect for his subse- 
quent career. His preparation in the use 
of language for writing and speaking has 
been too meager. He finds that his pro- 
fessional work is not of a character to 
supplement his education in this particular. 
Yet culture studies are out of place in any 
engineering course with strongly marked 
technical tendencies. Both student and 
instructor feel this. The two kinds of 
study interfere with each other. The stu- 
dent cannot fix his attention on culture 
study while absorbed in the beginnings of 
technical study. The instructor in the 
culture studies feels the hopelessness of 
the task and must perforce be content with 
a lifeless, memoriter fulfilment of task work. 
The instructors in the technical studies are 
apt to be impatient at the time and atten- 
tion demanded by the culture studies as 
more or less of an obstacle and hindrance 
to what is rightly regarded as the student’s 
main work. 
Under such circumstances as these it 
seems clear that the culture studies must 
soon disappear from our engineering courses. 
This change will, doubtless, come about 
gradually and will occur in the more fully 
developed courses first. It will not mean 
that culture studies shall be omitted from 
the education of the engineer. It will 
simply mean that he must obtain them out- 
side of the engineering course, preferably 
before he enters it. The tendency, on every 
hand, is to insist more strongly than hereto- 
fore upon the culture studies as essential to 
the engineer. To insure large success he 
must be a manof broad culture. He is 
to direct large enterprises as well as plan 
the necessary structure and machinery of 
the plant, and that man will succeed y ho 
by the influence of his personality, with 
