192 
Italian Tn~igation. 
the second, the civil architect ; and the third, the surveyor or 
measurer. For the superior degree the course of study extends 
over four years. Before entering the university at all, the 
engineer student must pass an examination, which embraces 
arithmetic, elementary geometry, and algebra, to equations of the 
second degree. In the university course the first year is devoted 
to the farther study of algebra, of trigonometry, and of analytic 
geometry ; the second, to the differential and integral calculus 
and descriptive geometry ; the third to the principles of mecha- 
nical philosophy and their applications to machines, with 
practical geometry — under which term are included surveying, 
levelling, plan-drawing, and other pi'ofessional details of this 
order. The last year is devoted to the study of construction in 
theory and practice as applied to ordinary and hydraulic work. 
During the first three years the student is obliged to attend the 
school of architectural design ; and at the close of each yeaf an 
examination in the subjects of that year's studies has to be passed 
before any farther advance is permitted. Before taking the 
degree of^ hydraulic-engineer, two special examinations have to 
be passed — one private, which embraces the range of the last two 
years' studies ; the other public, on three theses selected by the 
student himself from forty-five propositions prepared by the pro- 
fessors of mechanics, of construction and of hydraulics. A fourth 
theme is prescribed specially by the professor of hydraulics, and 
is designed to test the practical knowledge of the young engineer. 
It is in the form of a project for a bridge, or a dam, or a 
hydraulic-machine, or a canal ; and the student is required to 
submit every detail, with regular plans, estimates of probable 
cost, and calculations of materials, &c. When these various 
tests have been satisfactorily submitted to, the student receives 
his diploma, and is entitled to exercise his profession either as 
a member of the government corps of civil engineers, or privately, 
as may suit his personal views. The names of the most distin- 
guished pupils are each year submitted to the Government, and 
published in the official gazette." 
In Italy, therefore, the callings of the civil engineer and'the 
land valuer are united into one profession, and a thorough pro- 
fessional education is an indispensable preliminary to its exer- 
cise. We have not yet reached this point of civilisation, and 
though in our agricultural difficulties we may have a choice of 
very many valuable advisers and referees, in whom practical 
good sense and sterling honesty may compensate for a possibly 
defective education, still we have no guarantee that our fate may 
not depend on a self-constituted arbiter, in whom some insight 
into the capabilities of land, and shrewdness at driving a bargain, 
have to make up for an absence of all professional, and almost all 
