established between the different political and religious parties which will eventually lead the way to industrial accommodations between the different nations.

The school in 1857 became an establishment of the state, but no modification has been made, unless it has been to raise a little the standard for graduation.

The following are the requisites for admission this present year (1860):

1. The French language. 2. Arithmetic. 3. Geometry, plane and solid. 4. Algebra, to the general theory of equations. 5. Plane Trigonometry. 6. Analytical Geometry. 7. The elements of Descriptive Geometry. 8. General notions of Physics. 9. Inorganic Chemistry. 10. Natural History. 11. The elements of Anatomy and Physiology, Zoology and Botany. 12. Design, in which each student will present a collection of drawings relative to Descriptive Geometry and the tracing of curves of the second degree; also, some Architectural drawings shaded in India ink, and also a book of sketches of machines.

The applicants for admission are examined in writing, during which they have to make a drawing in Descriptive Geometry, and also one in Architecture, after a model. They are also afterward examined orally. Some idea of the labor and thoroughness of the examination will be formed from the fact that last year eight hundred persons were examined for admission, and of these only two hundred and fifty were admitted, the examination commencing the first of Angust and terminating the fifteenth of October.

The courses of the school commence the first of November, and last, including the examinations, until the middle of August. The students do not lodge in the establishment, but go every day before 8 A. M., and remain until 4 P. M. All this time, except one hour for breakfast, is devoted to work of some kind, and during this time they are under the direction of the professors and inspectors.

There are attached to the school, sixteen professors, eleven repetiteurs, and two inspectors. The duty of the professor is to give the instruction by lectures entirely, excepting such as • must necessarily be given to each pupil separately, as in drawing and constructions.

The duty of each repetiteur is to examine and mark the students upon the subjects of the lectures of the professors, each student is examined in some course once every week, and alone, at which time he is obliged to show to the repetiteur the notes taken upon the subjects upon which he is examined.

The courses of Lectures for the first year are: —

1. Descriptive Geometry. 2. Physics. 3. Mechanics. 4. Chemistry. 5. Natural History. 6. Cinematics, or (Transformation of movements in machines).

The course of Descriptive Geometry comprehends the two treatises of Leroy on Descriptive Geometry and Sterotomie, in its Applications to Shades and Shadows, Linear Perspective, Dialing, Stone-cutting, and Carpentry, and besides the drawings of all of these, the students are required to make models of the different arches and domes, from chalk, and models in wood of the various details in Carpentry.

The students have two lectures in each course per week.

In the course of Physics, the students have such problems as this to solve. Determine the specific gravity of an alloy, taking into account the temperature of the water, and the barometric pressure.

In Chemistry each student makes twenty manipulations, of three hours each, from the preparation of oxygen to the preparation of the ethers.

The course on Mechanics commences with Analytic Geometry, and includes the Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus, and also Theoretical Mechanics.

The students have problems to work. Here is one in Mechanics. A material point moves

in a plane, and the laws of the velocities along two axes at right angles are known.

Deduce 1st, the co-ordinates of the moving point in functions of the time. 2d, Determine its

velocity. 3d, Calculate the acceleration along each axis, and thence the total, and also the tangential and normal acceleration. 4th, Discuss the curve in which the body moves, when

The two courses of Natural History, and that of Cinematics, last five months each.

During vacation the students are required to make two drawings, one Architectural, and one of a machine; these are left to the selection of the student.

At the beginning of the second year each student chooses one speciality; these are four in number, viz. that of a Metallurgist, Constructor, Chemist, and Machinist. They have to follow all the courses but only execute projects and manipulations in their own speciality.

The courses are the same for the second and third years, except that a course upon Railroads is added the third year; they are as follows:-1. Applied Mechanics. 2. Industrial Physics. 3. Industrial Chemistry. 4. Metallurgy. 5. Exploitation of Mines. 6. Analytical Chemistry. 7. Construction. 8. Construction of Machines.

Here is a project upon Applied Physics. To make the plans with all the details for the construction of a steam-boiler, which shall produce 700 kilogrammes of steam per hour.

Here is a project in the Construction of Machines. Construct a steam-engine to raise by means of pumps, the water to feed a reservoir at a railway station. The dimensions of the reservoir are 200 m. cube, the bottom of the reservoir is 6 m. above the ground. A noncondenser is required which shall work one or many pumps; the level of the water is 15 m. below the ground, and the amount required per hour is 33 m. cube. .

In Construction projects are given, as the construction of a truss bridge of given dimensions. Or the construction of a viaduct in masonry. These projects are prepared in detail, and are often the work of a month or more of hard labor, consisting, as they do, of five or six large drawings and many pages of memoirs.

At the end, after a severe examination, if the student has passed successfully, he receives the diploma of civil engineer, without which he cannot practise in this country.

Discipline. Every student is obliged to be under the care of his parents or their correspondent, so that if there is any misconduct on the part of the student, his correspondent is immediately notified. Whenever the student is absent from school the correspondent is notified of that fact the same day. There are private and public reprimands given by the director, and in case the pupil is refractory, the correspondent is invited to remove him. I have been thus minute in describing the school for two reasons, that those young men who intend to finish their engineering education may know what sort of a school it is, and what they have to submit to, and also, that teachers may see that in the amount to be taught, if not in the methods, there is room for some improvement.

This is not by any means considered as equal in the theoretical instruction to the Polytechnic School, and its graduates cannot have that complete, and special, and practical skill, which the engineers trained in the Polytechnic, and afterward in the School of Mines or the École des Ponts et Chaussées. Of each one of these I shall have occasion to speak in detail.

I must not omit to say that the price of instruction in the Central School is 775 francs per year, and that the government has established a number of scholarships which are given to meritorious students; also, that the students, accompanied by their Professor of Design, make excursions to some edifice, or bridge, or manufactory in Paris, and make sketches and measurements of them on the spot, and afterwards draw them in detail. They also take excursions to make geological exploration in the neighborhood of Paris.

PARIS, August 6, 1860.

WE have received the following solutions of the Prize Problems in the June number of the Monthly:

HARRIET S. HAZELTINE, Worcester, Mass., Probs. I., II.

GEORGE B. HICKS, Cleveland, Ohio, Prob. III.

DAVID MERCER, Okeana, Ohio, Probs. I., II.

W. T. JACKSON, Western College, Linn Co., Iowa, Prob. II.

ASHER B. EVANS, Madison University, N. Y., Probs. I., II., III., IV., V.

O. B. WHEELER, Michigan University, Ann Arbor, Probs. III., IV., V.

JOSEPH B. DAVISON, Oberlin College, Ohio, Probs. I., II., III.

GUSTAVUS FRANKENSTEIN, Springfield, Ohio, Prob. IV.

We have delayed the report of the Judges until our next number, in order to complete the article "On the Indeterminate Analysis" in this volume.

PRIZE ESSAYS. — We have received four Prize Essays, and regret that Prof. FERREL'S absence has prevented the committee from giving their report in this number; but we hope to be able to announce the decision in our next.

ERRATA.

66

Page 108, for "b-d" or "b a2," read "d"; page 181, line 16, “x—y” should precede "x"; page 329, Prob. III., for "tan 245°," read "tan 254°"; page 374, for "t 90°," read "t — — 90°."

INDEXES. - Our special thanks are due to our friend and colleague, E. J. LOOMIS, Esq., for the Indexes to this volume.

The Illustrated Pilgrim Almanac for 1861.

Published in Aid of the Monument Fund. Boston: Published at the Office of the National Monument to the Forefathers, No. 13 Tremont Row. WILLARD M. HARDING, Financial Agent.

Most of our readers are probably already aware that the first number of this Almanac was for the year 1860, and published in August, 1859. The success of the first number was such as to warrant its continuance, and to demonstrate that the publication will largely aid the Monument Fund, not only directly, but by increasing public interest in the enterprise. It will be praise enough for the illustrations in the numbers before us, to say that they are by HAMMATT BILLINGS, Esq., the designer of the Pilgrim Monument.

The heads of the calendar pages in the number for 1860 represent several of the celebrated monuments of ancient and modern times; for the year 1861 they represent the discoveries of America, Florida, the Mississippi, St. Lawrence, Expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh, First Settlement of Virginia, Discovery of Hudson River, Settlement of Rhode Island, First Sabbath in New Haven, Settlement of Pennsylvania and Kentucky, and Emigration in the United States. Besides these, we find the Breakwater at Plymouth, England, Attempts of the Pilgrims to escape to Holland, the Pilgrim Meeting-House on Burying Hill, Plymouth, Capture of Annawan, and Immigration into the United States. The number closes with the names of 3,412 members of the Pilgrim Society who have subscribed $5, or upwards. The calendars are given for five different parallels of latitude, - namely, Montreal, Boston, New York City, Washington, and Charleston, — thus making the work available for all parts of the United States and Canadas.

The work is beautifully printed on fine tinted paper, and is as ornamental as useful; and, at the low price of twenty-five cents a number, must have a large and steadily increasing sale.