works he expressed an unbounded admiration, must find the sphere of his The following extracts from the prospectus of the lectures in the engineering department of the Zürich school show how much more complete is the scheme of instruction there than has at present been found possible in England: B.-Department of Civil Engineering. (Duration of course, 3 years.) 1st year. Differential and integral calculus. Descriptive geometry. Principles of construction. Practice in construction. Drawing. Experimental physics. Experimental chemistry. 2d year. Differential equations. Technical mechanics. Geometry of three II. PROVISION MADE FOR THE PAYMENT OF PROFESSORS AND ASSISTANTS. 2 Skilled Assistants -Attached to every professorship of chemistry are several a-si tant-hips. The assi tants are chosen by the professor from the most promising or best qualified students; they are also State servants, and receive salarie1 from Government amounting to from £40 to £60 per annum, with the addition of residence, with fire, &c. The duties of these ai-tants are (1) to attend to the preparation for illustrating the experimental lectures of the professor; (2) to assist in the practical teaching in the laboratory. For the firt of the e purpo es the fervices of one assistant is required; for the second a number of a sistants are required, in proportion to the number of student working. In Bonn and Berlin one assistant is appointed for every 12 or 13 student, whilst in other laboratories a larger number of students are placed under each a si tant. On the whole, we find that the average ratio of students to a istants is 20 to 1 In some ca es (as at Göttingen) the assistants are professors (extraordinarii) in the Univer ity, and lecture on special subjects, as well as take a certain number of the beginners In the laboratory altogether off the hands of the profe sor. 3. Fees.-The fees both for lectures and laboratory practice are much lower than with us. This is, of course, explained by the fact that all the science schools are Government institutions. Thus at Heidelberg the fee for the lectures on chemistry (five hours weekly, for from four to five months) is £1 14s. per "semester," whilst the laboratory fee is £4 for working six days DEVELOPING SCHOOL, AND SCHOOL-SHOPS. BY 8. P. RUGGLES. Report of Committee of the American Social Science Association, Jan. 10, 1877. There is an order of education, which may be called special, by which every individual in a community in harmony with his choice shall not only be cultivated into an able man, but shall, in addition, have a practical training in that peculiar knowledge and specific skill by which he becomes habitually a machinist, mason, carpenter, builder, architect, engineer, ship-builder, naval architect, etc. Each of these duties must be learned by some person, over and above and in addition to all that he knows in common with others; and it is plain that the work of each citizen will have value in exact proportion to his skill. In other words, the value of a nation's work will vary with the excellence of its national system of technical education. The question comes home to every one of us, How shall we train the children and youth, who are to succeed us in this world, changed by science and invention, for the wide field of responsibility that lies before them? The conditions of society have undergone such a radical change during the last forty or fifty years that the laborer must now receive a different practical education from what was required two generations ago. Apprenticeship having departed, never to return in its ancient form, something else must take its place, and give to our artisans practical instruction. Every youth should have placed within his reach such technical instruction as will enable him to become the master of his trade, art or occupation. By the old apprentice system, the boy was bound to the master some seven years, and received his instruction more by his own observation than by any direct teaching. We recommend the plan suggested by Mr. S. P. Ruggles, and so universally endorsed by the press, in contradistinction to the former system of our fathers, — that the youth, whenever he has completed his general education in any of our public or private schools, may enter what may be called a DEVELOPING SCHOOL, so established and arranged as to give all the pupils a good general idea of all the different trades, arts or callings, in order that it may be ascertained by themselves or the superintendent for what kind of business they have the greatest natural genius. Imagine, if you please, one very large room, with a steam-engine and boiler in the middle of it, so that all pupils that have any taste for the management of steam, or steam-engines, could examine every point, and readily understand all about it. Then we would have a carpenter's bench, with a variety of tools, to show how that work was done; then perhaps turning-lathes, to show how the wood-turning business was performed; then, with the aid of blackboards and carving-tools, it might be seen how drawing and carving is done, by those that have any inclination for that business. We should also have planingmachines, lathes, upright drills, jig-saws, etc., to represent the machinist business. Foundry work should be shown by having the usual fixtures for sand, and two and three part flasks for moulding, etc.; the casting could be done in soft metals, as lead, zinc or tin, which could be reused, as the whole art in foundry work consists in the different manner of moulding; and almost all other trades or methods of doing work could be pretty well represented in the same room. THE SCHOOL-SHOP. As soon as it should be ascertained what kind of business the pupil is best fitted for by nature, he would be recommended to the SCHOOL-SHOP where that trade should be taught, and be more thoroughly instructed in two years, and become a better mechanic, than in six or seven years under the old system of learning a trade. School-Shops vs. Workshops. We would here like to show the difference between mechanical shops of all kinds that should be established to teach a trade, art or calling, and the shops already established for doing work of that particular kind for profit. For example, we will speak of the machine-shop, which, as now arranged, is fitted up with the general tools and fixtures necessary to do a particular class of work, such as locomotive building, or steam-engine building of various sizes, or printing-press machinery, or factory machinery, or tool-making, etc., etc., neither of which would have every variety of tool or fixtures in any one shop for doing every kind of machine work. But when we fit up a machine-shop for the express purpose of teaching that trade or art, it should contain, not only planers, lathes, upright drills, gearcutting machines, etc., for doing work generally, but should contain every tool and appliance of every name and nature that is ever used in any shop whatever, so that the student would become acquainted with every manner of doing work and the management of every kind of tool or device ever used in any place or business for doing work. Also there should be a very particular selection of the kinds of work to be made at the school-shops, consisting of lathes and planers and other tools that are always kept on sale, large and small work of different kinds, making as great variety of work as possible for the pupil to practise upon in building, so that he would get a thorough knowledge of all and every part of the machine business; and each pupil would be taught to make the whole, and put together every machine that was being constructed. The School-Shop Training. In the school-shop the pupil would advance from a lower degree of instruction to a higher as rapidly as his thorough knowledge and good workmanship would justify. The instructor would be paid a satisfactory salary, and not be permitted to make merchandise of the time of the student. All machinery, or articles made by the students, could be put on sale, or be sold at auction, and the proceeds appropriated towards the expenses of the "school-shops." The great and rapid change in the division of labor and the introduction of machinery, and the great variety of appliances for doing all kinds of business, show plainly the importance of changing the system of instruction at the present time. We think it will be admitted that it will be of incalculable advantage to the youth, and would prove in the end to be very economical for the whole community. AN AGE OF SPECIALISTS. Formerly a carpenter was taught to build a whole house: he used to jack down his floor-boards, make sashes, blinds, doors, stick out his mouldings, build his stairs, split out the laths, etc. Now this work is divided into specialties. We have planing-mills, where boards are planed by the wonderful "planing-machine" to an equal thickness; tongued, grooved and jointed if desired; also, machines run by steam for sticking out mouldings of every size and description. There are special establishments for making blinds, sashes, and doors of every description and variety, by machinery invented and adapted to that special purpose. Stair-building, formerly a part of the carpenter's trade, is now a specialty or business by itself. Great changes have taken place in the machine business, caused by the subdivision of labor and the introduction of various machines and appliances to perform the labor formerly done by hand. Instead of chipping and filing to make a straight edge or level surface, the material is now placed upon the planer for planing iron, where the edge is made perfectly straight, or the surface perfectly level, in one-tenth the time formerly required before the introduction of the planing-machine. This is true of other varieties of work, by means of upright drills, jig-saws, screw-cutting apparatus, polishing and emery wheels, universal chucks and other appliances to the lathe, together with other apparatus which facilitates the manufacture of |