Stuttgart, Hanover, Dresden, Brunswick, Aix-la-Chapelle, Darmstadt, and Carlsruhe. The Emperor desires to establish a new school at Danzig. As a rule the schools are divided into six departments. At Berlin (Charlottenburg) these departments are: 1, architecture; 2, general constructing engineering; 3, machine construction; 4, naval engineering; 5, chemistry and mining engineering, and, 6, applied science in general. In the other polytechnical schools the departments are generally the same, but in certain schools special attention is devoted to some one subject taught in a certain department. Thus the Munich polytechnicum has an agricultural branch, and Aix-la-Chapelle gives prominence to mining engineering. Electro-technics are taught in all the schools in the machine-construction department, it being considered that every constructing engineer to-day should be thoroughly familiar with electrical machines. Prof. Adolf Slaby, of the technical institute at Charlottenburg, is one of Germany's most eminent authorities on electro-technics. He agrees with Professor Paulsen that the universities have no direct share in the application of science to industry. Professor Slaby thus expresses his views: "Practical teaching is abhorred by the professors at most of our universities. I recollect attending a lecture by Helmholtz where I expected him to give some explanation of the dynamo. After making some theoretical observations, he merely said: 'Acting on these principles people have constructed some very ingenious machines called dynamos for engineering purposes.' That was all Helmholtz would deign to say about the dynamo. The professors of to-day are just the same in this respect. Their teaching is purely scientific, philosophical, philological, and historical, and has not varied for three centuries. Of course the greatest discoveries in physics have been made in the university laboratories, but the application of these discoveries has been neglected by the universities. Pure science is their aim, and we who, without concerning ourselves with studying the phenomena of nature, devote our whole efforts to giving our pupils the means of turning science to practical account are despised by the university scientists. There are, of course, a few exceptions. Thus, for instance, Professor Klein, of Göttingen University, is agitating for a more practical trend in university teaching. The only practical teaching given in the universities is in chemistry, which began with Liebig. To-day the students of chemistry are divided between the universities and the polytechnical schools. The former merely instructs in analysis, whereas we form chemists who have a practical knowledge of machinery. The demands of the epoch require that chemists attached to industrial concerns shall be familiar with machinery. When we have the right to confer degrees, for which we are now striving, we shall attract many students who are now allured to the universities by the prospect of a diploma. "The Charlottenburg Polytechnicum, which will celebrate its centenary in 1899, furnishes a good example of the progress made in recent years. Ten years ago we had only 800 pupils. This session more than 3,000 young men are studying here, more than a third of whom are in the machine construction and electro-technic department. This increase is due not only to the progress of German industry, but also to the development of our towns as centers of activity. All our municipalities employ first-class engineers for the technical branches of the municipal service. In Berlin alone several hundred highly qualified engineers are employed by the city. Many of our engineers go abroad, chiefly to England and America. Many foreigners come to study in German technical schools. In this school we have between 300 and 400. They come chiefly from America, England, France, Russia, and Scandinavia. Every pupil costs the Government a clear sum of 600 marks annually. This fact has been the subject of an interpellation in Parliament, the result of which will po' ably be that we shall have to make foreign students pay higher fees than the pent nominal ones. "There is no danger of our teaching not keeping abreast with the times. Our professors are stimulated by the advice and opinions of former pupils who now occupy important industrial positions. For instance, men who visited the Chicago World's Fair and were impressed by the splendid achievements of American methods urge us to accentuate even further the practical side of our teaching. Professor Riedler, one of our most eminent engineers, is at the head of this movement, and has published several pamphlets on the subject. Another point which indicates our movement forward is the difference-not to say quarrel-going on between the professors of engineering and the professors of mathematics in our polytechnical schools. Our present professors of mathematics are university men, permeated with the university spirit. They consider mathematics as a science per se. We look on mathematics merely as an instrument, and want to have mathematical professors who understand the practical application of mathematics to engineering, and for that purpose have studied machinery and acquired practical engineering knowledge. I mention these matters to show that we are not likely to rest on our laurels, but are moving ahead all the time. "Germany has every reason to be proud of her polytechnical schools, which have given her a front place in the industrial world. Ours is not a rich country, but we have realized that sacrifices for educational purposes are good investments. No country of equal resources spends as much as we do on education and the army. Both are necessary and they go hand in hand, for our military training is a part of our general education." TECHNOLOGICAL, AGRICULTURAL, FORESTRY, MINING, AND VETERINARY SCHOOLS IN EUROPE. Technological, agricultural, forestry, mining, etc.-Continued. Technological, agricultural, forestry, mining, etc.—Continued. NOTE--Several noted technological schools in European countries are connected with universities, hence can not be separately enumerated. Military and naval engineering schools are excluded from this list. SCHOOL GARDENS IN EUROPE. The Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Education have from time to time called attention to the school gardens in Europe. (See Report of 1889-90, Part I, page 308.) The literature concerning this subject is limited, and even European official reports say little about these gardens. They continue to increase, however, and a survey made by Dr. Karl Ruland resulted in an article in the Cologne Gazette which sets forth in what countries such gardens can be found and to what extent they are introduced as an aid to rural school work. The question of improving rural schools is a live one at present, and hence it is thought that a statement based on Dr. Ruland's article may be welcome. As early as the beginning of the fourteenth century in some cities of Italy, for instance, in Salerno and Venice, institutions were found in which plants from all the parts of the world and every climate were cultivated for the purpose of instruction and the promotion of science. These institutions, called botanical gardens, became, however, more universal with the revival of science. The rich cities of Italy, above all Ferrara, rivaled one another at that time in establishing such gardens. The universities of France and Spain followed their example. The establishment of a botanical garden in Paris toward the end of the sixteenth century proceeded, it is true, from a rather trivial cause-"because the embroiderers of the court dresses needed new floral designs." Not until 1626 was this garden, which later obtained the name "Jardin des Plantes," devoted to the great scientific purpose of cultivating all the plants of the world. In Germany also a great zeal for botanical gardens has been noticeable since the close of the sixteenth century. Their establishment was usually simultaneous with the foundation of universities. At present no German higher seat of learning is without such a garden, which furnishes the material for instruction in botany and serves in many ways for experiments with agricultural plants. In the face of these facts it seems strange that during all this time nobody thought of establishing gardens also for lower schools. Comenius, it is true, expressed the desire that every school have a garden in which the pupils could delight their eyes in seeing trees, flowers, and herbs. He saw in the school garden a means of awakening and nourishing the desire to learn. Also Pestalozzi, so enthusiastic for youth and popular education, demanded that children should be engaged in work in garden and field; but this demand was dictated by purely pedagogical considerations. Fröbel likewise laid great stress upon agreeable occupation of little children in the garden. But to establish in the school garden a means of instruction for the public elementary school, and to employ it for the purpose of instruction in horticulture and science of nature, has been thought of only recently, and only sporadically at that. Above all countries it is in Sweden where the school garden has found the widest extension and greatest development. The authorities there have recognized that the people's schools can contribute toward the increase of the national wealth, in so far as it depends upon agriculture and practical direction in certain of its branches. In Sweden, which had, in 1876, 1,602 and in 1881 as many as 2,000 school gardens, scarcely any public school building is found without such a garden. In Belgium, too, where a large part of the population depends upon truck gardening, the greatest interest is manifested in the establishment of school gardens, not only by agricultural and industrial communities, but also on the part of the central Government. This has been done for many years, and considerable sums are contributed annually to the efforts in that direction. The prosperity of the rural population in Belgium, which is derived chiefly from the extended cultivation of truck gardens, must be attributed primarily to the school gardens and the extensive knowledge of horticulture among the people. The school gardens gained ground also in France after the introduction of agriculture into the public schools by a law passed in 1885. (See Annual Report of Commissioner of Education, 1895-96, Part II, p. 1139.) In Switzerland the Swiss Agricultural Union has taken in hand the establishment of school gardens with great zeal and considerable success. This union obtained from the Federal Government a subsidy of 3,500 francs for the year 1885, which sum was suitably employed as a first aid in establishing gardens for schools in rural communities. Since then annual appropriations have been devoted to the conservation of these gardens and to a gradual extension of the system. Owing to this governmental encouragement, there were in 1888 sixteen communities in Switzerland which had well-arranged school gardens. Since then their number has increased. While the Swedes with their school gardens aim especially at the promotion of agriculture, the Belgians and French seek to promote the culture of fruit, vegetables, and flowers. In Switzerland, aside from practical considerations, chiefly pedagogical views were authoritative for the establishment of such gardens. The school gardens in rural schools of Switzerland, as it is officially stated, are to serve youth to acquire in a pleasant manner theoretical instruction of the growth of the most important and most useful plants, partly as a field of practice for rational nursing and treatment. These gardens are intended to promote love for horticulture, order, and rural embellishment. Austria treats the school-garden question from a broader and higher standpoint. After the imperial law of 1869 prescribed instruction in agriculture in all normal ED 9815 |