theoretical and the practical. The teacher should remember that he is not educating the philosopher but the man of affairs, and that practically all of his pupils, whether engineers or not, will spend their lives in dealing with the commonplace. The ideal of education is by no means to educate a youth out of his environment, for this always results in dissatisfaction and useless friction. It is rather to educate him through his environment, so that he may learn to use it for the attainment of higher ends. Formal and antiquated exercises, whether in the classroom or textbook, are therefore worse than useless, as they serve to obscure the ideal of service instead of strengthening it. The author of a textbook in particular can spend his time to no better advantage than in the selection of problems with reference to their vital interest and modern application, as in this way both interest and utility are secured.

Heretofore, the merits of a textbook have been largely a matter of personal opinion. With the increasing multiplicity of texts, however, the need arises for the establishment of a norm or standard whereby their relative merits may be determined. The existence of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education and kindred societies is in itself evidence that the need of such a scientific criterion is felt. A universal principle is needed, and to be universal it must be drawn from experience. The simple psychological principles here presented, as applied in the historical method and association with the familiar and commonplace, satisfy this requirement, and although so simple as to appear trite, are nevertheless of fundamental importance to any theory of engineer

ing education which lays claim to being rational and scientific as well as practical.

DISCUSSION.

PROFESSOR FRANKLIN: I wish to take exception to one thing in the paper, and that is the insistence upon the importance of history in the teaching of the physical sciences. No doubt every organic structure must in its own development recapitulate the history of its race, but with a logical structure surely it is different; the finished philosophical product of the sciences is what is conserved and handed down from generation to generation, and old discarded isms are so much excrementitious stuff. We do not sufficiently realize that the structure of the sciences is a continuously growing organism which can no more feed on what has been discarded than an animal can feed on dung.

Elementary physics should not be taught by dragging a student for several years over the painfully erratic historical development of the subject; any way, "past time is a book with seven seals," and the historical method is a dim impossibility. Let students look at the physical world as it is, and manipulate it and reason about it.

PROFESSOR MAGRUDER: Professor Slocum takes exception to the use of definitions. I think the trouble with definitions in some textbooks is that they do not define. If a definition does not convey the desired idea and actually define, do leave it out. Do not tempt the student to cite cases not covered by the definition. Vague generalities are worse than the other extreme of quibbling over minutiæ.

METHODS OF STUDYING CURRENT TECHNICAL

LITERATURE.

BY HENRY H. NORRIS,

Professor of Electrical Engineering, Cornell University.

It needs no arguments to prove that if students can be made familiar with current engineering literature they will take more interest in their studies. The difficulty is how to accomplish this object in the limited time at their disposal. Several plans are in use which it is hoped will be brought out in the discussion of this subject. The writer will confine himself to his own experience, relying upon others to supplement the suggestions made.

It is impracticable for students to read continuously the periodicals relating to the profession and some selective principle must be applied in order that time and "eye-power" may be economized. Whatever time is thus employed should be expended systematically and some record should be kept of the information gained from the reading. I have made it a practice to encourage my students to subscribe for some first-class electrical periodical (mentioning several) with the idea that with the copies of such a periodical lying on their desks they would at odd times glance through the pages and be attracted by matters of interest. A bulletin board has been proIvided in the main lecture room and students are requested to post thereon such facts as have come to their notice through the periodicals and which they

think will interest their classmates. The remarks made by students indicate that a large number of them read the periodicals with more or less regularity, as they call attention to facts almost immediately upon publication. Formerly it was found desirable to arrange for rates for the different periodicals giving the students the benefit of the ordinary agents' discount. Lately, however, the publishers have discouraged this practice, as they feel that it conflicts with the interests of regular agents. At the present time, therefore, student agents are recommended to any publisher who desires to bring his periodical to the notice of the engineering students. Through the efforts of Professor H. Wade Hibbard, of the Sibley College faculty, an excellent periodical room was established some years ago and reading tables with magazine racks are located in an attractive part of the Sibley College buildings. These tables are usually filled during the term time and the students appear to examine the magazines diligently. In some departments, systematic seminary work is conducted among the undergraduates, but in the department of electrical engineering, on account of the large number of students, this is found at present impracticable. In the graduate seminary, however, considerable attention is paid to the periodical literature.

The technical papers contain too much material to be assimilated by undergraduate students and they are apt to be discouraged by its very abundance. They are not prepared to appreciate the highly technical articles and the descriptive articles are usually too elaborate for their purposes. The digests of en

gineering literature, such as that published in the Electrical World, are of the utmost value. Any student should be able to read the abstracts of the articles which interest him most, and if time permit he can go to the original source of the information for further details. The problem is how to encourage the students to do this regularly, and further how to conserve the results of the study so that it may be of practical use to them. If the discussion can bring out some points regarding this matter they will be appreciated by all of the engineering teachers present.

DISCUSSION.

PROFESSOR WHITE: In some of our departments each senior is required to subscribe for a technical journal which he is responsible for indexing. These papers are kept in the department reading-room and are common property while there. The index cards are uniform in style and arrangement and copies are kept in the university library and in some cases in the library of the Western Society of Engineers in Chicago. We do not class this as seminary work and no credit is given for it.

PROFESSOR BRACKETT: I give one hour credit to junior and senior students for journal reading. I assign an article or more to each student at one of the weekly meetings. The next week each student is expected to have a suitable résumé of the reading. assigned him and also to be prepared to answer any questions on the subject that may arise in discussion. As many as possible are asked to report each week.