6 THE president's inaugural address. 



Wo asscmblo, tlion, to discuss various ;ind .special ques- 

 tions in engineering, both scientific and practical, with the 

 object of enlarging our views, and of profiting by the prac- 

 tical expei'ience of one another in every variety of engineer- 

 ing work. This is an oljject that should be attended with 

 benefit and instruction to all of ua. 



The profession of the civil engineer at the prc^sont day 

 embraces so many special departments that I sn[)poKO no 

 one engineer is at home in all of them : that, in fact, like 

 as it is in all other professions, every engineer mast bo 

 more or loss of a specialist, having had his thonghts and 

 his practical, experience concerned chiefly and more j>articu- 

 larly in some one special department of the profession. 



This, I have no doubt, wo shall find to bo the case 

 amongst onrselvos. Bat, notwithstanding this, wo shall all 

 doubtless have a good deal to learn from one another by 

 reason of individaal differences of view and of expoi'ieneo 

 in every subject; and I will further maintain that an en- 

 gineer in any one branch of the profession will be more 

 likely to form a sound judgment upon an engineering ques- 

 tion in any other branch, than one of the outside pnblic, by 

 reason of his practical training, and of his constant habit of 

 deducing the cause from the effect ; and that, therefore, 

 when an engineering expert in any one branch details his 

 views and experiences upon his own subject, he will have a 

 more interested and appreciative audience oven among tliose 

 engineers who have not, like himself, made that subject a 

 specialty, than he would in any general audience. 



In tlio discourse that is to follow these rema-rks, on the 

 Subject of Chilled Iron, for example, you will no doubt have 

 valuable practical remarks upon a very important and in- 

 teresting subject, which will be of uso and of interest to aJI 

 of us; though, for myself, I have not liad very much to do, 



