Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

tion. The combination has been in many respects highly advantageous to the new department, and is probably not without some influence for good upon the old and well-known classical department.

Plan of instruction.-This institution, which is partly co-ordinate with a classical college and partly with professional schools, receives three classes of students:

1. Those who wish to pursue a three years' course of training,* in accordance with a prescribed curriculum, largely based upon mathematical, physical, and natural science, with instruction in German, French, and English.

2. Those who have already graduated in some college or school of science, and desire to pursue advanced courses of scientific study.

3. Those who desire under peculiar circumstances to attend for a short time instructions in special branches.

These three classes are known as under-graduates, graduates, and special students. Instruction for graduate students.-The degree of doctor of philosophy will be bestowed by the corporation of Yale College on young men who have already taken a bachelor's degree, and who here pursue for two or three years advanced special studies, passing satisfactory examinations, and submitting a graduation thesis as evidence of their attainments. Great freedom in the choice of work is' permitted to such students; and all the resources of the institution in teachers, apparatus, laboratories, collections, &c., are at the service of those who need them. Persons desirous of availing themselves of opportunities to pursue higher studies are invited to state their special requirements or wishes to any of the instructors, and thus to become acquainted with the facilities which the institution affords. As examples of what may be done it may be mentioned that in mathematics, Professors Norton, Trowbridge, and Lyman, with the co-operation of Professor H. A. Newton, will direct the studies of those who wish to avail themselves of the class instructions in the calculus, in analytical and descriptive geometry, mathematical drawing, practical astronomy, &c. The Hillhouse Mathematical Library, open for consultation daily, and the astronomical instruments belonging to the school, may be freely used by advanced students. The higher course in engineering leads to the degree of civil engineer. The chemical laboratory is fitted for the instruction of those who wish to become proficients in practical analysis, either in preparation for professorships, technical pursuits, the medical profession, or other purposes. Instruction in natural history may be received in the zoological laboratory, where the collection, description, and classification of specimens are continually in progress; or, by private arrangement, in the herbarium of Professor Eaton. The public and private collections of minerals, ores, fossils, &c., afford special facilities for the study of mineralogy and geology.

Instruction for undergraduates.-The courses of study for undergraduates occupy three years; it is hoped that they will be soon extended to four years. The requirements for admission and the first year's work are the same for all this class of students; during the last two years the courses are to some extent coincident, but are chiefly special and technical.

For admission the student must pass a thorough examination in Davies's Bourdon's Algebra as far as the general theory of equations, or in its equivalent; in geometry, in the nine books of Davies's Legendre, or their equivalent; and in plane trigonometry, analytical trigonometry inclusive; and also in arithmetic, including "the metrical system," geography, United States history and Euglish grammar, including spelling. An acquaintance with the Latin language is also required, sufficient to read and construe some classical author, and Allen's Latin Grammar is commended as exhibiting the amount of grammatical study deemed important. Practice in drawing, if it can be obtained before entrance, will be of great advantage to the scholar.

The studies of the freshman year are: In the mathematics, analytical and descriptive geometry, spherical trigonometry, and surveying, (with practical field-work;) in chemistry, recitations and laboratory practice; in physics, recitations, with experimental illustrations of the subjects taken up; in language, the commencement of German, and lessons in respect to the use of English, with practice in writing and in elocution; in botany, recitations, excursions, and lectures; in drawing, Binn's First Course of Orthographic Projection; perspective and free-hand drawing.

At the close of the freshman year, the students distribute themselves into various sections with reference to special lines of work for the senior and junior years; but in all these sections the study of German is continued; the study of French is pursued; and practice in writing English is required. Drawing also occupies a part of the time. At the close of three years, every candidate for a bachelor's degree presents a thesis as evidence of his powers of investigation and his capacity as a writer. In each section, the students attend to some of the studies appropriate to other sections; thus geology is taught to all the scholars; zoology to the students in chemistry as well as to those in natural history and in the select course; and so on.

Soon to be made a four years' course.

The special courses most distinctly marked out are the following:

(a.) In chemistry and metallurgy;

(b.) In civil engineering;

(c.) In mechanical or dynamic engineering;

(d.) In agriculture;

(e.) In natural history;

(f.) In studies preparatory to medical studies;

(9.) In studies preparatory to mining;

(h.) In select studies preparatory to other higher pursuits, to business, &c.

(a.) For chemistry and metallurgy the Sheffield laboratory is fitted up in a complete and convenient manner, is provided with all the requisite apparatus and instruments of research, possesses a considerable collection of chemical preparations, and has a consulting-library of the best treatises on chemistry and the chemical arts. It is open for chemical practice seven hours daily, for five days of the week, but is closed on Saturday. The student works through a course of qualitative and quantitative analysis, which is varied according to his capacity and the object he has in view. Each pupil proceeds by himself independently of the others, under the constant guidance of the instructors. The regular students in chemistry are prepared for chemical work by their practical exercises in the laboratory during freshman year. In the junior and senior years they are required to occupy four to six hours in the laboratory each working-day. Special students who have not had adequate instruction in inorganic chemistry are required to join the freshman class in Eliot and Storer's Manual. Junior students have recitations in analytical chemistry and lectures on theoretical and organic chemistry. Senior students have recitations and lectures on agricultural chemistry and metallurgy. Mineralogy is taught in the junior year by lectures, which are fully illustrated with hand-specimens and models, and by weekly exercises throughout the senior year in the identification of minerals from physical and chemical characters. Instruction is also given in metallurgy, and especial attention is devoted to assaying and the investigation of ores and furnace-products. The student in agriculture has opportunity to acquaint himself with the modes of research employed in agricultural chemistry. The applications of the science to other branches of industry are taught as occasion requires. To advanced students, whether belonging to the regular classes or not, who desire to give attention to particular branches of chemistry, or to pursue original investigations, every facility is accorded. The private libraries of the professors, containing the chemical journals and the recent foreign literature of chemistry and mineralogy, the large collections of ores, furnace-products, &c., belonging to the school, and the extensive private cabinet of the professor of mineralogy, are freely used as aids in instruction.

(b.) The special course of civil engineering comprises the following departments of study: 1. The higher mathematics, consisting of spherical trigonometry, higher analytical geometery, differential and integral calculus, descriptive geometry, and co-ordinate branches of study, &c. 2. Applied mathematics, which include all the field-operations and plotting comprised in the various branches of practical surveying. 3 A course of drawing, comprising Binn's Course of Orthographic Projection, with application to mechanical and engineering drawing; shading and tinting; linear perspective; free-hand drawing ; isometrical, topographical, architectural, and structural drawing. 4. Theoretical mechanics; and mechanics applied to engineering in the construction and operation of machines, the utilization of water-power, the employment of prime movers, including hydraulic motors, and the steam-engine, &c. 5. Fieldengineering, which embraces the laying out of curves, and all the field-operations necessary in locating a line of road, establishing the grade, and determining the amount of excavation and embankment, &c. 6. Civil engineering, proper, or the science of construction, in its various departments, including, among many other topics the strength of materials, the establishment of foundations, the construction and stability of walls and arches, the theory and detail of the construction of bridges, roof-trusses, &c., in wood and iron, and the graphics of stone-cutting.

Students who pursue a higher course in engineering, for one year after graduating as bachelors, may receive the degree of civil engineer.

(c.) The course in dynamic engineering comprehends in its various branches of study and preparation all that have an immediate bearing on industrial pursuits, requiring the use of: 1. Instrumental drawing. Beginning with the elements of drawing, the students receive continuous instruction in all the conventional modes and practices of representing objects, machines, or structures, from the study of the objects, by plans, elevations, sections, shading and coloring, while at the same time, and by graphical representation, they learn the detailed construction of all classes of machinery, the application of mechanical movements, and the modes of transmitting motion and power. To these ends a large collection of standard drawings, models, and machines has been obtained and arranged for ready reference. 2. The higher mathematics. Spherical trigonometry, analytical geometry of three dimensions, differential and integral calculus, and descriptive geometry. 3. Applied mathematics and analytical mechanics.

The principles of thermodynamics, or the application of mathematics to the investigation of the laws of heat, the principles of cinematics or the comparison of motions; the theory of mechanism. 4. Applied mechanics and thermodynamics. The application of mechanics, cinematics, and thermodynamics to the construction of boilers, or steamgenerators, the construction of steam or heat engines, the construction of water-wheels, shafting, gearing, and the construction and use of tools and machines for performing all kinds of useful work, the construction of iron bridges and structures of iron, the properties of materials as regards resistances to strains, or stresses, elasticity, durability, chemical reactions, friction, &c. 5. Dynamic engineering. The application of the principles of mathematics, mechanics, cinematics, thermodynamics, mechanism, and properties of materials to industrial operation, steamships, railway motive-power, manufactures, mills, forges, fabrication of materials, heating and ventilation, the utilization of water-power, draining, and irrigation, windmills, &c. 6. For students desiring to take a degree of dynamic engineer, two additional years will be required, during which the application of the foregoing studies will be continued in connection with the examination of existing works of industry in the various branches, and the exercises will be extended to the planning of such works, and the original designing of the various kinds of machinery applicable to them.

(d.) Students of agriculture, in addition to those general studies needed for mental discipline or general knowledge and culture, receive instruction in agricultural and analytical chemistry, vegetable physiology and botany, zoology, entomology, geology, the culture of our staple crops, the principles of stock-breeding and rearing, and rural economy. These instructions are given partly by lectures and partly by recitations. In the coming year, the lectures on stock-breeding, rural economy, and the cultivation of crops, will be given during the fall term only.

(e.) Either geology, mineralogy, zoology, or botany may be made the principal study in natural history, some attention in each case being directed to the other three branches of natural history. In botany the extended course begins with structural and physiological botany, taught by text-books, lectures, and practical work with the microscope. Excursions and practice in identification of species and proper preservation of specimens follow. Familiarity with standard botanical literature is encouraged, and, lastly, students are taught to record their observations in scientific language, and to contribute, if possible, something to botanical science. In geology the instruction consists of recitations in Dana's Manual, illustrated by specimens of minerals, rocks, and fossils. Excursions are made to interesting localities to illustrate certain principles of the science which can be best studied in the field. Special students in geology pursue the practical study of fossils in the zoological laboratory, and of minerals and rocks in the chemical laboratory.

The instruction in zoology includes courses of lectures on systematic zoology, comparative anatomy, and the geographical distribution of animals, illustrated by specimens and a large number of diagrams; excursions for the purpose of studying the habits of living animals and collecting specimens; and practical instruction in the zoological laboratory, in comparative anatomy, embryology, and the identification, description, and classification of animals, together with their preservation and arrangement. The purpose is, in every case, to induce habits of close observation and accurate generalization, and, finally, to lead the student to make original investigations upon the objects of his study.

In mineralogy a course of lectures on elementary crystallography, and the physical properties of minerals, their chemical composition, classification, and the detailed description of mineral species, illustrated by constant reference to the mineral cabinets. Also a course of practical exercises in blow-pipe and determinative mineralogy.

(f.) During one year the work of the medical course will be chiefly under the direction of the instructors in chemistry; during the second year under that of the instructors in zoology and botany. In chemistry especial attention will be given to the examination of urine and the testing of drugs and poisons; in zoology to comparative anatomy, reproduction, embryology, the laws of hereditary descent and human parasites; and in botany to a general knowledge of structural and physiological botany, and to medicinal, food-producing, and poisonous plants.

(9.) Young men desiring to become mining engineers, can pursue the regular course in civil or mechanical engineering, and at its close can spend a fourth year in the study of metallurgy, mineralogy, &c. Should there be a sufficient number of students desiring it, a course of lectures on the subject of mining will also be provided.

(h.) In accordance with a demand for systematic instruction in scientific studies, without reference to technical pursuits, and with a just regard to intellectual culture, a course is arranged as a basis for higher scientific pursuits, for teachers, business men, those designing to engage in editorial work, and others. This course, in addition to the instructions in German, French, and English, common to all departments of the school, includes instruction from Professer Whitney in the general principles of language, and from Mr. Lounsbury in the critical study of the English language, in its structure, history, and literature. Constant practice in writing is also required. Stu

[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]
« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »