344 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 348. 



should unlearn, while, on the other hand, he 

 had failed to acquire knowledge of which he 

 stood badly in need. Yet this was a far too 

 frequent experience with boys entering tech- 

 nical colleges from the public schools. The 

 remedial changes which had so far been made 

 in this direction were limited in extent com- 

 pared with those really required, and there was 

 still left to be done at the technical college 

 much educational work which ought to have 

 been done at school, the result being a waste of 

 valuable time. The matter was one which 

 merited the most careful attention of all inter- 

 ested in technical education. There caooe a 

 time when every engineer must specialize if he 

 really wanted to attain anything more than a 

 subordinate position. This specialization should 

 be at least commenced during the college career 

 rather than subsequently, the student devoting 

 the latter part of his course at college to the 

 acquirement of a knowledge of the special prin- 

 ciples which underlay practice in the particular 

 branch of the profession to which he was about to 

 devote himself. This meant that the college au- 

 thorities must take a wider view of their respon- 

 sibilities than many of them did at present. It 

 would also probably mean in the future that cer- 

 tain colleges would acquire a reputation for cer- 

 tain branches of work. One of the chief aims of 

 technical college training should be to develop 

 independent thought and action in a student. 

 It could not be too thoroughly appreciated that 

 the vast development of mechanical engineer- 

 ing work which had been going on in the past 

 half-century, and which was still going on at 

 an ever-increasing rate, was prodjicing a most 

 important change in the conditions which se- 

 cured both professional and commercial success. 

 In the old days the leading firms of mechanical 

 engineers had comparatively few customers, 

 and they had, as a rule, to meet the great va- 

 riety of requirements of those customers to the 

 best of their ability. Repetition work was 

 comparatively rare, and success depended 

 largely on resourcefulness and the power of 

 entering thoroughly into the conditions to be 

 fulfilled. Nowadays the successful mechanical 

 engineer was not he who made a great variety 

 of things for the few, but a small variety of 

 things for the many, at the same time pro- 



ducing those few things in the most perfect 

 way. Experience showed clearly that mere 

 lowness of price was not in itself an inducement 

 to purchasers, and the maker of an engine of 

 exceptional economy or of a machine too, 

 which excelled its competitors in the quantity 

 or quality of the work it turned out would 

 never find difficulty in obtaining proportion- 

 ately good prices for his productions. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



Berea College, Ky., receives $50,000 by 

 the will of Stephen Ballard, of Brooklyn. 



The Department of Agriculture has received 

 a communication from the University of Cali- 

 fornia announcing that a dairy school is to be 

 established at that institution and requesting 

 that a butter and cheese expert of the depart- 

 ment be permitted to go to California to assist 

 in establishing the school. Mr. W. E. Griffith, 

 one of the experts of the department, will be 

 assigned to this work August 20. 



President James Whitford Bashford, of 

 Ohio Wesleyan University, has been oflFered the 

 presidency of Northwestern University. 



Dr. T. D. Wood, professor of hygiene and 

 organic training at Stanford University, has ac- 

 cepted a similar position at Teachers College, 

 Columbia University. 



Elliot E. Downing, Ph.D. (Chicago), who 

 has been during the summer assistant in zoology 

 at Chicago University, will in the autumn take 

 charge of the biological department at the 

 Northern State Normal School at Marquette, 

 Mich. 



Dr. Charles F. Hottes has been appointed 

 instructor in botany in the University of Illi- 

 nois. Mr. Hottes was formerly assistant in 

 the botanical laboratory of the University, but 

 has spent the last three years at the University 

 at Bonn, studying plant physiology and cytol- 

 ogy. Mr. H. Hasselbring, of the New York 

 Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, 

 has been appointed assistant in the Agricultural 

 Experiment Station of the same University. 



Dr. Florence M. Lyon, of Smith College, 

 has been appointed associate in botany in the 

 University of Chicago and dean of Beecher 

 Hall. 



