July 29, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



139 



Third Year. 



Biology 9 



Philosophy 5 



History and Economics 4 



Elective Course 2 



English composition and reading, French 

 and German, as well as economics, are in- 

 cluded in all the complete engineering and 

 science courses at the Case School of Ap- 

 plied Science, Cleveland, Ohio. The same 

 practise is followed at the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, where, in addition, 

 history (American and European) figures 

 in the program. In these institutions the 

 course lasts four years. The course of 

 reading prescribed in the Case School is 

 an instructive one. 



I inquired specially into the teaching of 

 English composition. At the Massachu- 

 setts Institute the instructor was taking 

 the utmost pains to select themes likely 

 to interest engineering students ; but the 

 possibility of directly correlating the labo- 

 ratoiy work with the literary work had 

 not been contemplated. 



It appears to me that we may well take 

 a leaf out of the American book and intro- 

 duce an element of literary study into our 

 engineering courses ; but when the question 

 is considered, I trust we shall endeavor to 

 correlate the literary work very closely 

 with the practical work. I did not dis- 

 cover that American students are any more 

 willing to read studiously than ours are. 

 Henry E. Armstrong. 



London. 



{To he continued.) 



JOB'S BELL HATCHER. 



American paleontology has suffered an 

 irreparable loss in the untimely death of 

 Mr. Hatcher, which took place, after a 

 short illness, at Pittsburg on July 3. 



John Bell Hatcher, the son of John and 

 Margaret Hatcher, was born at Coopers- 

 town, Illinois, October 11, 1861, but at an 

 early age was taken by his parents to 



Greene County, Iowa, where 'they settled 

 permanently, and where he received his 

 early education. As a boy, he provided for 

 future college expenses by working as a 

 coal-miner and what he observed in the 

 mines directed his attention and interest 

 to the problems of geology. In 1881 he 

 entered Grinnell College, Iowa, and, after 

 remaining there for three months, he be- 

 came a member of Yale University, gradu- 

 ating in 1884. His undergraduate years 

 Avere devoted to the study of the natural sci- 

 ences, and especially to geology and botany. 

 Some collections that he had brought with 

 him from Iowa attracted the attention of 

 the late Professor Marsh, who appointed 

 Hatcher, immediately on his graduation, as 

 his assistant and at once sent him to the 

 western field to collect fossil vertebrates. 



Thus began a career which was un- 

 rivalled of its kind, for Hatcher had a 

 positive genius for that particular work, 

 as is well known to all who have had the 

 privilege of accompanying him in the field. 

 Marvelous powers of vision, at once tele- 

 scopic and microscopic, a dauntless energy 

 and fertility of resource that laughed all 

 obstacles to seoi-n, and an enthusiastic de- 

 votion to his work, combined to secure for 

 him a thoroughly well-earned success and 

 a high reputation. He may be said to 

 have fairly revolutionized the methods of 

 collecting vertebrate fossils, a work which 

 before his time had been almost wholly in 

 the hands of untrained and unskilled men, 

 but which he converted into a fine art. 

 The exquisitely preserved fossils in Amer- 

 ican museums, which awaken the admiring 

 envy of European paleontologists, are, to 

 a large extent, directly or indirectly due 

 to Hatcher's energy and skill and to the 

 large-minded help and advice as to methods 

 and localities which were always at the 

 service of any one who chose to ask for 

 them. 



Hatcher's uprightness and sincerity of 



