nance of these experiment stations connected with the colleges founded in the several states under the provisions of the act of July 2, 1862.

By this act of 1887 (known as the Hatch bill) the sum of $15,000 was appropriated to each state for the purpose of paying the necessary expenses of conducting investigations and experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the United States. This was made a continuing appropriation to be specially provided for by Congress in the appropriations from year to year.

The act forms an admirable and necessary supplement to the original legislation of 1862, and its effect is apparent in the increased efficiency of the agricultural colleges previously established, and in the rapid development of new institutious of this character in states which had not, prior to the enactment of the Hatch bill, availed themselves of the privileges offered by the land-grant act.

But it is none the less true that an important factor in promoting the forward movement of technical education in America was the land-grant act of 1862, by means of which the colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts have received in the aggregate more than $16,000,000.

The relative amounts realized by the several states from the sale of land or land-scrip apportionments are quite unequal. The proceeds per acre have varied from 41 cents for Rhode Island to $5.57 for California, and $6.73 for New York. This variation is due, however, to the greater or less skill exhibited by the different states in the financial management and final disposition of their holdings. Under the administration of Mr. Cornell and (since his death) of the Hon. H. W. Sage, the proceeds of the New York state land grant now amount to nearly $5,000,000, and this vast sum constitutes the endowment fund of Cornell University, affording an illustration of the wisdom of the policy, in this instance at least, of giving the whole income to a single institution. Some of the states, it is believed, made a serious mistake in consent ing to a distribution of the educational revenue derivable from this source among several collegiate establishments-their well meant impartiality reducing the proportion of each to so small an allowance as to be of little benefit. But, to quote the words of Prof. H. W. Tyler of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the Forum for September 1891:

Although technological schools existed before the passage of the land-grant act; although others have been founded and successfully conducted without its aid; although it has been applied to a great extent to the promotion of agricultural education; and although, finally, the income from it is often but a fraction of the total revenue of the institutions receiving it, yet it can not be doubted that the grant, coming at an opportune time, greatly accelerated the development of scientific and technological education, and thereby contributed materially to the extraordinary industrial progress of the past twenty years. Its authorship is not the least among the public services of Senator Morrill of Vermont.

INSTITUTES OF TECHNOLOGY.

RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE.

"Technological education in the United States," remarks Prof. Tyler, in the Forum article before referred to, "may be said to date from the founding of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York, in 1824. Stephen Van Rensselaer, its founder, as a member of the state board of canal commissioners, had been actively interested in the constrution of the Erie canal.

"Engineering as a profession was unknown; men were educated by the work, not for it. The object of the new institution was the general dissemination of that moderate amount of scientific knowledge which its founder recognized as indispensable to the community. Although conducted at one time as a general polytechnic school, the institute has been from its foundation primarily a civil engineering school, interpreting civil engineering, however, in a sense almost as broad as that which once excluded only military engineering."

The faculty consists of eighteen professors and instructors. The course of study in civil engineering is now the only course of the institute. All the regular members of the institute pursue this course, and the degree conferred is that of civil engineer. It should be stated, perhaps, that civil engineering is understood to include mechanical or dynamical engineering, road engineering, bridge engineering, hydraulic engineering, steam engineering, electrical engineering, mining engineering, and sanitary engineering.

The studies of the course are designed to secure to all the graduates a professional preparation at once thorough and practical. The course of study occupies four years. The number of students in 1890 was 174. About 1,000 students have been graduated from the institute, including the membership of all the classes from 1826 to 1889. Of these nearly all have followed some branch of engineering as a profession, though a very few are registered as lawyers, professors, etc.

Nothing need be said of the thoroughness of the equipment which the training of this institute supplies; its graduates, from Roebling down, are the best exponents of the school, and attest the value of its instruction.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston was chartered by the state legislature April 10, 1861, and opened in February 1865. This institution receives one-third of the income accruing to Massachusetts from the land-grant fund.

There are twelve regular four years' courses of study, each leading to the degree of bachelor of science, viz., civil engineering, chemical engi

neering, electrical engineering, mining engineering, mechanical engineering, sanitary engineering, metallurgy, architecture, biology, chemistry, geology, physics. The studies are the same for all courses during the first year; after that divergence begins, with specialization for professional work.

Prof. Tyler writes:

At the end of the first year (a) the student must decide which one of the diverging courses to follow, the results of the previous work guid ing or restricting this choice. A student can not, for instance, pursue an engineering course without having shown some aptitude for mathematics. At present the drift is toward the mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering courses in the order named, these comprising nearly 70 per cent. of students pursuing full courses.

In the second and succeeding years, the more important features are: First, the progressive substitution of technical for general subjects; second, a corresponding increase in the amount of laboratory work; and finally, the gradual introduction of more or less independent origi nal work, scientific research, technical investigation, or constructive design. Thus, in the fourth year of the course in mechanical engineering, the student devotes himself almost entirely to more advanced technical work, either in mill or marine engineering, or in locomotive construction. Laboratory work takes the form of tests of boilers, pumps, and so on, followed by an investigation to be embodied in the graduating thesis. It may be added that the engineering laboratories are in no sense "toy workshops." Among the apparatus for experiment are, for example, a 150-horse power engine, and a testing machine capable of breaking full-sized beams up to 25 feet in length.

Shop work occupies a strictly subordinate position. Its object is to impart some familiarity with tools and with materials, not to produce skilled mechanics. Regular instruction is supplemented, but not superseded, by excursions to manufactories.

A noteworthy characteristic of the curricula of the engineering courses is the unity secured by basing all upon a nearly uniform foundation, not merely of mathematics and physics, but of an extended course in mechanics and the strength of materials, with laboratory work. All regular students receive systematic instruction in literature, history, and political economy, as well as in modern languages. The following is an outline of the course in mechanical engineering:

The tuition fee is $200 per year. Applicants for admission to the institute must be 17 years of age, and must sustain an examination in arithmetic, algebra, plane geometry, and history, English language and literature, and in French or German.

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY.

At Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, in addition to the reglar academic course of study, there are various professional departments, with only one of which we are now concerned, viz., the engineering department, in which are twenty-two professors and instructors. This department comprises three professional schools, namely, the schools of civil, mechanical, and mining engineering. A four years'

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course in either of these schools leads to the degree of bachelor of engineering; but a fifth year's course is provided for such as choose to pursue advanced studies. The first year studies are the same for the three engineering classes, but in the second year the courses diverge toward the several specialties. The work laid out for each branch of engineering is essentially identical with that of all first class schools of this kind, though more attention is given to modern languages-French, German, and Spanish--than in most schools of engineering.

Tuition in this department is $50 per annum, and necessary expenses, all told, amount to $200 per annum and upward, according to the habits and mode of living of the individual student. Special students are admitted to partial courses in this department. The whole number of students in the engineering courses in 1890-'91 was 55.

LAWRENCE SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL.

As befits a great university, Harvard offers facilities for the successful prosecution of special and professional studies of every description. The Lawrence Scientific School, for example, is a department of this university in which the following courses of technology may be pursued: Civil and topographical engineering, chemistry, geology, biology, and electrical engineering. The course of study in each of these branches extends through four years and leads to the degree of bachelor of science, the course of study for which the degree is given being specified in the diploma. There were 88 students in the different classes of the Lawrence Scientific School in the academic year 1890-'91.

LAFAYETTE COLLEGE.

Technical courses of instruction are provided at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.

The civil engineering course, leading to the degree of civil engineer, is comprehensive and thorough, including not only studies in civil engineering, but topographical, hydraulic, and mechanical engineering. Its object is to give its students such instruction in the theory and practice of engineering as to qualify them for immediate usefulness in the field and office, and, after a moderate amount of actual practice, to fill positions of trust and importance in their chosen profession.

The location of Easton is most favorable for an engineering school. The city is at the junction of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers, and is a great centre for railroads, canals, bridges, founderies, pipe works for water, gas, etc., rolling mills, repair shops, and many other industrial works.

The mining engineering course, leading to the degree of engineer of mines, includes instruction in topographical and mechanical engineering, mining, chemistry, metallurgy, and in other studies essential to the thorough preparation of the student for mining and metallurgical work.