caused much discussion and disagreement, but the average high-school course is now agreed upon as a minimum. Some authorities maintain that certain studies are the all-essential; others hold that a mind trained to continuity of thought and the capacity of independent reasoning from facts and data to rational conclusions is sufficient, and favor giving the student a wide choice of election.

According to an old system, the physician classified his people by temperaments; a method not without merit. There is the nervous temperament, the phlegmatic temperament, the sanguinous temperament, and so on. In a similar way students may be grouped in regard to their tastes. One has a predilection for languages, one for mathematics, others for literature, and some for the classics; and so through the list. From their earliest school days they frequently manifest these preferences, which may be developed into delightful accomplishments and carried along with routine work.

By the fixed-rule system, only such language, mathematics, history, and natural science are measured out to the pupil as it is thought he should know so as to enter understandingly upon medical branches. According to the other theory, even if he be deficient a count or two in trigonometry, for instance, he may be ahead of the average in Latin, Greek, English, elementary psychology, or some other disciplinary branch, so as to comply with an elastic standard.

Of course, it is appreciated that so long as the high school is the gateway for the ordinary student to a medical course, there is not so much hope of his becoming liberally educated as there will be when the academic college courses are added to the list of entrance requirements.

However, if with nothing but a high-school training a student of the intellectual diathesis starts out in medicine, he will, with a little latitude for his tastes, round out to a high degree of scholarly attainments.

The student who has the elective privilege and selects only easy courses will probably never make a scholar unless, perchance, he experiences the quickening influence that occasionally comes from contact with an inspiring teacher. In his choice of studies he betrays his instinct and gives evidence as to whether he had better or had better not be urged to take what is usually referred to as advanced work. The student with the scholarly predisposition and a taste for the humanistic studies should be encouraged to pursue them. If, on the other hand, his taste incline him strongly in another direction, why not let him gravitate that way? But there is danger at this point of his being prejudiced by some scientific enthusiast who does not himself comprehend the importance of any group of studies besides those which he has himself too narrowly pursued.

If I may be allowed to presume that there is anything conclusive about what I have said, I will make the following summary:

1. A preparation for medicine is not particularly unlike preparation for any other specialized work. It contemplates the training of the faculties and acquisition of classified knowledge.

2. The average graduate, at the present time, will enter the practice of medicine as a business project, and will not strive for lofty educational ideals.

3. The ideal physician will appreciate the value of all knowledge and delight to become proficient in such intellectual activities as he may be led to by a refined taste.

4. So soon as practicable, advanced or collegiate work should be required for admission to the medical college.

5. In the advanced studies a wide latitude should be permitted to the conscientious student, that he may cultivate his preferred branches.

6. As the humanities, such as the classics, philosophy, history, the arts of reasoning, and so forth, have great cultural and disciplinary value, students should be encouraged to pursue them as a historic background against which the present appears.

7. The greatest merit of these studies is not to be sought in their technical values, although a knowledge of Latin and Greek is time-saving in the etymological translation of words and phrases, and facilitates the learning of modern languages; but in that they conduce to a better interpretation of literature, both medical and general, in a broader sense, and are of great refining worth.

SYMPOSIUM II

THE VALUE OF HUMANISTIC, PARTICULARLY CLASSICAL, STUDIES AS A PREPARATION FOR THE STUDY OF

ENGINEERING

I. THE PLACE OF THE HUMANITIES IN THE TRAINING OF ENGINEERS

HERBERT C. SADLER, Sc.D.

Professor of Marine Engineering, University of Michigan

The subject of the technical training of engineers is one that has been treated at some length by many writers within the last decade. In the majority of cases, however, little or no attention has been paid to the earlier or preparatory education of those intending to follow this profession.

The engineering profession naturally demands a training along highly specialized lines, and the consideration of this fact has to a certain extent overshadowed that of the purely preparatory, or what may be called the general education, which must form a basis for this specialization.

In the engineering department—and, it must also be confessed, in the departments of literature, science, and the arts of our universities the utilitarian spirit has of late assumed a somewhat prominent place; and, in the endeavor to devote his time solely to those subjects which he considers will be useful or money-producing immediately after graduation, the student in all probability will omit those studies which are of the nature of general culture. The time which the average man can spend

at the university being limited to four years, and in the case of most modern engineering courses four years at a considerable pressure, the demands of the purely technical studies, or those bearing immediately upon the same, have rendered the introduction of any culture studies an impossibility. This is due to the fact that, owing to the recent developments within the sphere of science, there is so much more to teach in the old subjects, so much that the students ought to know about the new, that four years is all too short even for the technical work.

With this atmosphere pervading the educational world, it is not very surprising that the student, in deciding upon the selection of certain courses, will ask himself: "Is this particular study going to be useful to me?" In his somewhat immature judgment he is apt to lay greatest stress upon those subjects which he imagines may be converted most easily into cash in the immediate future, losing sight of the fact that there may be other things in life besides the mere accumulation of wealth or expertness in his profession.

It may be pertinent at this time to consider the position of the engineer in the economic and social world of today. In the early days of the profession the only representative was the military engineer; but as time went on, operations other than those of a military or semimilitary character demanded men whose training was not necessarily along military lines. Hence arose the term "civil engineer" as applying to those non-military men engaged in engineering in a general sense. The advent of steam and machinery led to a new class, known latterly as "mechanical engineers," this term being used to distinguish the men who specialized in moving machinery rather than in statical structure. In these