392 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 350. 



{j) The college of navigation and marine trans- 

 portation with two departments. 



{h) The college of mathematics with two depart- 

 ments. 



( I) The college of politics and economics with four 



departments. 



(m) The college of languages and literature with 

 four departments. 



(n) The college of philosophical science and ethics. 



(o) The college of biology. 



{p) The preparatory college (standard curriculum). 



" This scheme appears an ambitious one, 

 but it so appears simply because we are in 

 the very inception of educational work, and 

 few persons have the slightest idea of the 

 need or the opportunity for promoting the 

 highest interests of the nation through a 

 thoroughly systematized education." 



Dr. Thurston refers with just pride to 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

 the Armour Institute, the Pratt and Drexel 

 institutes, as well as to others of a similar 

 character, giving the curriculum of that 

 sterling school of technology, the Massa- 

 chusetts Institute, as well as much valuable 

 data regarding the faculty, equipments and 

 graduate students, all of which is compared 

 with the Eoyal Technical College at Berlin. 

 Dr. Thurston, with every other member 

 of the commission, lays particular stress 

 upon the value of the secondary school 

 which he chooses to call the technical high 

 school and which it is evident will meet the 

 needs of the largest number of people. He 

 chooses for a typical illustration of this 

 division of the scheme the splendid work of 

 the Pratt Institute of Brooklyn. Dr. Thurs- 

 ton also emphasizes the great value of such 

 a secondary school to the young men and 

 women of Pittsburg particularly, and be- 

 lieves it is only carrying out Mr. Carnegie's 

 wishes to develop this department to its 

 fullest extent. 



As to the higher departments of the new 

 school he expresses himself most charm- 

 ingly in the language of John Eussell on 

 the occasion of the latter's visit to a German 



technical university : "A technical uni- 

 versity abroad was to me a surprise, a pro- 

 found lesson, a delight. It was a dream of 

 my youth suddenly embodied in living sub- 

 stance, and, unlike other realized dreams, 

 the reality excelled the fiction. It was one 

 of my early dreams that highly educated 

 men should engage in teaching skilled work- 

 men the profound philosophical principles 

 which underlie all material work, and I 

 hoped so to make their work their pleasure, 

 excellence their ultimate aim and truth of 

 execution and perfection of finish their 

 highest ambition." 



Dr. Thurston proceeds to discuss the 

 higher branch of technical education with 

 special reference to the needs of Pittsburg, 

 then gives us some valuable information as 

 to the status of the faculty of the great 

 school, quoting precedents in home and 

 foreign institutions. Endowments are also 

 discussed with a freedom that has opened 

 our eyes to the vital importance of this 

 part of the scheme, and to which I have al- 

 ready referred in this paper. Summarizing, 

 Dr. Thurston says : 



" The first step considered advisable in 

 preparing to supply Pittsburg and its en- 

 virons with an institution of high efficiency 

 for technical instruction should be to make 

 a plan of that final educational structure 

 which is taken to represent the limit toward 

 which progress is expected to advance. 

 The actual construction of the scheme 

 should be commenced with the most essen- 

 tial elements ; the less immediately and 

 imperatively needed parts should be ar- 

 ranged for later. In the present case it 

 would probably be justifiable to assume that 

 the aim of the school should be, first, to pro- 

 vide for the young people of Pittsburg need- 

 ing elementary technical educational in- 

 struction, and to organize for this purpose a 

 technical high school with evening classes 

 for pupils unable to attend regularly the 

 day classes. This foundation being laid, 



