December 19, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



341 



United States, showing the efiPect of their training at the 

 institute, in which theory and practice were so happily com- 

 bined, and in which every thing taught in the lecture-room 

 is at once put to use in experiment and research. 



In 1873 a further step in technical education led to the 

 establishing of a laboratory of steam-engineering. An engine 

 of sixteen horse-power was set up, and the necessai'y appa- 

 ratus for engine and boiler tests was provided Out of this 

 humble beginning has grown the largest and best equipped 

 mechanical engineering laboratory to be found, in whicli not 

 only is the work of instruction carried further than ever be- 

 fore, but original research, conducted jointly by the students 

 and their instructors, is pushed to points often beyond the 

 range of ordinary expert investigation within the profession. 

 In the same year the Lowell Free School of Industrial Design 

 was established at the expense of the Lowell Institute, for 

 the purpose of promoting the industries of the country, and 

 especially the textile manufactures, by cultivating the Ameri 

 can taste in respect to form and color. 



In 1876 the system of shop-work as a means both of gen- 

 eral and professional training was introduced. Half an acre 

 of shops, filled with the best tools, machines, and engines, 

 with over two hundred students pursuing this branch of in- 

 struction, represent to-day the poor, mean shed, with its 

 scanty appliances, which was all that the funds at the com- 

 mand of the institute allowed to be erected in 1876. 



In 1881 was established a laboratory of applied mechanics, 

 devoted especially to the tests of building-materials in wood, 

 stone, and iron. The equipment of the laboratory has been 

 increased from year to year, until it comprises a great vari- 

 ety of apparatus and machines, designed largely by the 

 instructors in that department, for making almost every kind 

 of lest which the purposes of the engineer, the architect, the 

 ship-builder, or the mill-owner may require, — beam tests, 

 coiumn tests, belting tests, rope and wire tests, shafting tests, 

 tests by tension, by transverse strain, by compression, by 

 tensile strain, and continuous, intermittent, or instantaneous 

 tests. 



In 1884 the germ of a biological laboratory, which had 

 existed in a corner of the shed used for the workshops of 

 1876, was developed with the aid of a large amount of physi- 

 ological apparatus. The resources of the laboratory were 

 turned, first, upon the preparation of its students for subse- 

 quent medical studies, and, secondly, upon bacteriological 

 investigations, to which the marvellous discovery of Koch 

 and Pasteur had pointed. It is not too much to say that 

 there is scarcely a place in this country where as much im- 

 portant bacteriological work has been done during the past 

 three years as in this laboratory of the institute. 



In 1882 the increased demands upon the department of 

 physics for the higher and more technical instruction of 

 students, looking forward to electrical practice, led to the 

 establishment of a distinct service devoted exclusively to that 

 end, and, in connection with the new building of 1883, to 

 the equipment of an electrical laboratory, with engine, dyna- 

 mos, electric motors, and a great variety of electric testing 

 apparatus. Notwithstanding this equipment, this course in 

 electrical engineering, as it has been developed at the insti- 

 tute, could not be sustained but for the machinery and ample 

 appliances of the engineering laboratories. The training of 

 the electrical engineer at the Institute of Technology differs 

 from that usually followed, in that the electrical engineer is 

 here regarded as primarily a mechanical engineer, but a me- 

 chanical engineer who has specially studied the mechanical 

 requirements of the electrical industries and enterprises, just 



as the chemical engineer under the course established two 

 years ago is regarded in his relation to the chemical indus- 

 tries. And this introduces us to the last contribution made 

 by the Institute of Technology to the philosophy of scientific 

 and technical education, in the recognition of laboratory 

 work in mechanics as an essential feature of a proper training 

 in any branch of the great engineering profession. In the 

 mechanical laboratories the students in each branch of en- 

 gineering, civil, mechanical, mining, electrical, chemical, 

 and sanitary, are called to perform the work of experi- 

 ment, and to deal with the generation of power, and its 

 application to the exigencies of their several contemplated 

 professions. 



We have thus roughly traced the history of the Institute 

 of Technology. We have seen within how few years it has 

 grown from a doubtful experiment into one of the most 

 important schools of the country. We have seen how 

 largely it has enjoyed the confidence and liberality of the 

 public, and we feel that we may securely rely upon the same 

 generous support hereafter. We have seen how its methods 

 of instruction have been adapted to the changes and develop- 

 ments of practical science. We have seen that in this mo- 

 bility, this power of adaptation, lay the grand idea of the 

 whole scheme; and we are sure, that, so long as it continues 

 to be its guiding principle, the Institute of Technology will 

 stand, — a monument to the character, learning, and wisdom 

 of its founder, worthy the community in which its establish- 

 ment was possible and by which it has been maintained, an 

 honor to the instructors who have devoted their energies to 

 its service, and fortunate, as we trust it may long be, under 

 the direction of so distinguished and able a president as Gen. 

 Francis A. Walker. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



The Influenza in Massachusetts. 



The secretary of the State Board of Health closes his annual 

 repoi^t with the following facts about last winter's epidemic: " 1. 

 The first appearance of the influenza in Massachusetts as an epi- 

 demic, in the past season, may be stated to have been on Dec. 19 

 or 20, 1889, and the place of its first appearance was Boston and 

 its immediate neighborhood. 3. It increased rapidly in the num- 

 ber of persons attacked, and reached its crisis generally througliout 

 the State in the. week ending Jan. 11, 1890, after which date it 

 gradually declined in severity, and had nearly ceased as an epidemic 

 by Feb. 10, so that the duration of the epidemic was about seven 

 weeks. It reached its crisis earlier by several days in Boston than 

 in the smaller cities and the remoter pai'ts of the State. Its course 

 was still later in Nantucket, Dukes, and Barnstable Counties. 3. 

 The ratio of the population attacked was about forty per cent, or 

 more exactly, as indicated by the returns, thirty-nine per cent, 

 or about eight hundred and fifty thousand persons of all ages. 

 4. People of all ages were attacked, but the ratio of adults was 

 greatest, of old people next, and of children and infants least. 5. 

 The weight of testimony appears to favor the statement that per- 

 sons of the male sex were attacked in greater number and with 

 greater severity than females. 6. The average duration of the 

 attack (acute stage) was from three to five days. 7. The pre- 

 dominant symptoms were mainly of three general groups, — ner- 

 vous, catarrhal, and enteric, — the last being much less common 

 than the others ; the special symptoms much observed in tlie ner- 

 vous group being extreme depression, pain, and weakness; in the 

 catarrhal group, cough, dyspnoea, and coryza; and in the enteric 

 group, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea. 8. The chief diseases 

 which followed in the train of influenza, and were intimately 

 associated with it, were bronchitis and pneumonia. Phthisis, when 

 already existing in the victim of the attack, was undoubtedly aggra- 

 vated, and in many cases a fatal termination was hastened. 9. The 



