REPORT OF COMMITTEE NO. 11A-PHYSICS.

Your Committee on Physics has made but little progress during the past year. Previous annual reports show that the committee has been attempting to establish complete cooperation between the two courses in mechanics (one in general physics) studied in the engineering course. As soon as the Committee on Physics was informed of the discontinuance of the Committee on Mechanics to whom a report has been submitted and with whom work was under way, communication was at once established between the new Committee on Mechanics and Hydraulics and the Committee on Physics. A coöperative effort between these two committees is now in progress and immediate attention is being focused upon the content in the physics course in mechanics. G. W. STEWART,

Chairman.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE NO. 11B-CHEMISTRY.

Your committee begs to report on the progress of its studies regarding courses in chemistry in engineering schools.

In December President Nichols of the American Chemical Society, at the suggestion of Mr. Bishop, appointed Professor Talbot, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor Parr, of the University of Illinois, and Professor McKee, of Columbia University, a committee to coöperate with your committee in the study of chemical education. Later Professor Talbot was forced to resign on account of ill health and Professor Bird, of the University of Virginia, was appointed in his place.

Up to January first most of the members of the committee were engaged in war work for the government, and for some time thereafter they were occupied in straightening out their affairs and reëstablishing their courses following the renewal of university work on a peace basis. Nevertheless, correspondence was had on the subject of the work of the committee. In April Messrs. Withrow, Parr, McKee and Bird met in Buffalo and discussed the work of the committee at considerable length. It was agreed that each of us would give thought and study to three phases of chemical and engineering education, communicate the results of such individual study to the other members, and later meet to collaborate these studies and prepare a report for your consideration. The three phases mapped out are:

"The limitations and content of first-year courses in general chemistry," with a view to laying the most thorough foundation possible for the further study of the science by those who plan to become chemical engineers. It was thought that if the content of the first-year course is carefully limited to so much as may be learned with great thoroughness, the

results will be better than at present, when much has gradually been added until the beginner finds himself consuming more than he can digest.

Second. "A consideration of what further study of chemistry, if any, is desirable for those pursuing other lines of engineering.

Third. "Graduate courses in Chemistry." Professor McKee submitted plans for a differentiation of the work of different universities in the advanced study of the several lines of applied chemistry. The idea is that one or more universities shall develop to the highest possible degree research work and its application along such line as is of most important in its state, rather than to attempt to cover too many fields. This plan looks to great schools in each of the several divisions of the field, where a student may learn the last word under the best masters.

The individual studies are now being made, but sufficient time has not elapsed for their restudy by other members of the committee and their collaboration. We therefore respectfully suggest that the committee be continued for another year. We hope that more normal times will permit a more careful consideration of the subject than has been possible during the troubled months of the war and the beginnings of reconstruction.

R. M. BIRD,

J. R. WITHROW,
J. H. JAMES.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE NO. 12, ENGLISH.

C. W. Park, Chairman, University of Cincinnati; Frank Aydelotte, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; J. R. Nelson, University of Michigan; S. A. Harbarger, New York City.

The gradual return of normal academic conditions, following the S. A. T. C. period, is encouraging to the committee, since much work can now be resumed which had to be set aside last year. From communications that have been received since the re-opening of the colleges, it is evident that the temporary suspension of the usual courses has been in some respects beneficial. Instructors show a disposition to revise their subject matter and methods, and they bring to the revision a variety of experience and a fresh point of view, gained in some form of war service. The new start in all lines of instruction makes the time a propitious one for a re-examination and, where desirable, a reconstruction of the curriculum.

Fortunately, just when conditions are most favorable for the introduction of changes in materials and methods, the report of Dr. C. R. Mann on "Engineering Education" is available as a guide in reconstruction. The publication of this work at any time would challenge a testing of every instructor's work by the standards of engineering training which it sets forth. Its appearance at this time is highly significant.

Among the passages in Dr. Mann's report which bear upon the question of English instruction, the following are regarded by the Committee as being especially suggestive.

"With regard to instruction in English, the engineering schools may be divided into two approximately equal groups, the one composed of those schools that maintain the current standard college course; and the other composed of those that are trying to discover a type of work better suited to engineers. In the standard type of course, the student studies a

text-book of composition and rhetoric, learns the rules of correct punctuation and paragraphing, together with the four forms of discourse, and then writes themes on assigned subjects selected by the instructor to give practice in either description, narration, exposition, or argumentation. In some schools the strict adherence to this plan is mitigated by allowing a choice from among several assigned subjects. The accompanying study of literature consists of a brief survey of the lives of the great writers and the analysis of selected passages from their writings. This well-known type of course was developed during the latter half of the past century for the purpose of making English an acceptable substitute for the classics in high schools and colleges.

"Doubtless because the professional engineers have been so frank in their demand for better training in English, about half of the engineering schools are experimenting with their methods of teaching this subject. These experiments are so varied in plan and execution that it is not possible to classify them." (Chapter VII, page 42.)

"Therefore congestion of the curriculum is inevitable so long as each department remains sole arbiter of the content of its courses, and there is no coördination among departments with respect to the amount and the nature of the subjectmatter in courses, and no scrutiny of the results of each department's work by some agency outside the department." (Chapter IX, page 56.)

"At this school (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) English is a required subject for all students throughout the first two years. The first half of the freshman year is devoted to general composition, with the object of eliminating the more common errors of construction and of leading the student to see that excellence in writing comes not so much from the negative virtue of avoiding errors as from the positive virtue of having something to say.

"The work of the second term of the freshman year begins with a class discussion of such questions as: What is the difference between a trade and a profession? What is the mean