EDUCATIONAL PROCESS OF TRAINING AN ENGINEER. 569 
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when we began, starting on a higher plane, higher by the amount that 
ne has received mechanically from the brain of the dying man—am I 
-aking too radical a position if I say, Let us use to a certain safe extent 
rapid methods of acquiring experience ? Let us not take off from or 
diminish one iota from our mathematic and analytical methods of teach- 
ing ; but if we can enlarge our student’s sphere to some extent by the use 
of graphical methods, may we not safely do so? Must he be required to 
plod through every single thing without a short cut anywhere? I think 
not, and I think there is no place where shortened methods can be more 
sasily found, adapted, and used, than in graphics. The danger of too 
free a use of them must, however, be kept constantly present. 
I believe a judicious use of shortened methods will enable us to increase 
somewhat the training and experience as well as the culture of our pupils. 
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THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS OF TRAINING AN 
ENGINEER. 
B3Y PROFESSOR G. LANZA, OF MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF 
TECHNOLOGY. 
IN order that I may be able to do justice to the main portion of my 
subject in the time at my disposal, I shall begin by laying down a few 
fundamental propositions, without stopping to prove them. 
(1) In order to impart to any individual the best mental training, and 
hence the best education, the course to be pursued should depend upon 
his natural aptitude. 
(2) Scientific study, and the study of science as applied to the industrial 
work of the world, is fully capable of giving the very best mental training 
to those whose aptitude lies in that direction. 
(3) The development of the technological schools of the country during 
the last twenty-five years has been phenomenal, whether we consider the 
number of the schools, the number of the pupils, or the character of the 
courses of instruction, and the facilities offered for scientific and industrial 
education. 
(4) An engineering course should aim to fit the student to become an 
engineer in the best and most thorough manner ; and it is mainly on the 
scientific and practical work of the course that reliance should be placed 
50 impart mental power, and hence mental training. 
(5) The training of the hand and eye should form an important factor 
mn all education, and especially in a scientific and technical education. 
(6) The recognition of the foregoing statement has led to the introduc- 
tion of laboratory work in chemistry and in physics, of laboratory and 
field work in natural history, of manual training in the use of tools, and