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giving such a short description of the scope and contents of each article as would enable any one to judge whether it is likely to contain to contain the particular information desired.

Such an index has been published by the Association of Engineering Societies for the past eight years. It appears monthly in the Journal of the Association, and at the end of each year all the notes of the year (some 2500) are brought together and rearranged into one annual summary. One seven-year summary of these annuals has now been published, under a single alphabetical arrangement, and bound in cloth. With such an aid it becomes possible to introduce the study of current technical literature into the schools. It is extremely important that our students should become somewhat acquainted with the most fertile sources of engineering literature while they are in college. Otherwise they may long remain in ignorance of some of the most important agencies and means of professional improvement. It is true they have little time at their disposal, and therefore they cannot afford to waste any of it in groping in the dark. They should be encouraged to purchase copies of the Current Index Summary, referred to above, or at least to use freely the copy which should be found in the school library.

The writer has found it an excellent method to have each student in the senior and fifth years to report on an assigned subject, before the entire class, occupying a half hour or an hour, the teacher taking his place with the rest of the class. Let him consult his index for

sources of information, and let him have two or three weeks in which to prepare his talk. Give him free range of the library, where most of the matter indexed should be found, and let him bring into the class such books and periodicals as he wishes to use to illustrate his lecture. He should not read from these more than very short extracts, but use their illustrations.

In this way he may have learned something useful in the subject assigned, but if not he has at least handled and looked into all sorts of engineering journals, society proceedings, monographs, reports, public documents, and the like, which would not be listed in the library catalogue, and of the existence of which he would remain in ignorance but for this forced browsing, under the guidance of his topical index.

It is possible in this way to so interest our students in technical literature that they will acquire a thirst for it and when they graduate, and often before they get through the school, they will at once subscribe for one or more engineering journals and will want a number of good books about them; will join a local or national engineering society, and become studious and progressive men in their profession. This thirst for professional knowledge and the habit of acquiring it, or of acquiring the books and journals containing it, is a fair test of the efficiency of their school training. If they go from the school with a feeling of self-sufficiency, and a distaste for professional literature, they are doomed to narrowness and are sure to become time-servers, anxious only to hold

their positions and to draw their salaries. The best possible means of cultivating in them the true professional spirit is to open up to them in an attractive way the vast and inviting fields of current technical literature which are now so accessible and so rich in profitable information.

DISCUSSION.

(On the Papers by Professors Merriman and Johnson.)

PROFESSOR LANDRETH commended the suggestion that the instructor should help the student to procure a library, and said that the teacher should keep that object in mind in choosing text-books for his classes.

PROFESSOR WOOD explained how the circumstances and conditions existing at different institutions affected the amount of reading students could or would do. He has his students take turns in examining current technical literature and making five minute reports before the class.

PROFESSOR SWAIN urged that the library should be of easy access to the students so that they may employ intervals between classes in the library. He recommended departmental libraries in preference to keeping all the books in one place.

PROFESSOR LANZA called attention to the opportunity offered by the students' engineering societies to give the prospective engineer literary training.

PROFESSOR TALBOT thought enough atttention was not given to cultivating the ability to write clear, simple English. He would go one step further than Professor Merriman: "The only way is first to write,

and then have somebody criticise the writing." It may be necessary to have the paper re-written three or four times, but the result amply repays the effort.

DOCTOR EDDY called attention to the elaborate system of reviews and abstracts of technical literature now common in Germany, and hoped we might some day imitate them. Until then, we should be grateful for such work as Professor Johnson has referred to, which will come to be more valued as it is better known.

DRAWING FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS.

BY CHARLES S. DENISON,

Professor of Drawing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

While not venturing the opinion that the subject of drawing, as we generally understand that ill-defined word, forms the most indispensable element in the education of the young engineer, it may safely be asserted that the large class of studies of which drawing forms an important part, and of which it is the means of expression, as well as the study and practice of the art itself, is and must continue to be, one of the fundamental constituents of the engineer's training. Indeed, no scheme of education intended to fit engineers for the best use of their powers can be considered otherwise than faulty and inadequate in which drawing does not occupy a conspicuous position. Admitting this to be the truth, it must also be granted that the allotment of time and energy to be devoted to the subject, and a suitable and logical arrangement and distribution of the student's work in drawing, with a view to the greatest economy as to time and the most hopeful prospect as to results, is a matter of sufficient importance to seriously engage the attention.

In order to get our bearings, a right definition of drawing is most desirable. It is a source of wonder how few works on the subject undertake to define

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