DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY, MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY.

THIRD AND SECOND CLASSES.

This department embraces two branches of physics not included in its title, namely, heat and electricity.

The course begins March 1 of the second academic year and extends to March 1 of the third academic year; exercises, recitations, laboratory work or lectures take place on all week-days.

Commencing March 1, the subjects of heat and general chemistry alternate daily until the completion of the first six chapters of heat, about March 20, after which the chemistry exercises are held daily until the close of the term, June 1.

During this term all members of the class whose progress, as shown by their recitations, warrants it, are given laboratory practice in chemistry. This practice begins with chemical manipulations and proceeds in the usual general order of elementary laboratory work. The laboratory exercises are one hour and fifty minutes long. It is generally possible to give all parts of the class some laboratory experience: the amount of this work, however, varies with the aptitude of the student from a few hours to fifty-five or sixty hours.

This term closes with an examination upon the essential parts of the entire course, which all cadets who have not shown a prescribed proficiency in daily work must take.

In chemistry the course is a descriptive general one, based upon a concise statement of the more essential principles of chemistry, and includes that class of information deemed most important to nonspecialists, together with an accurate and logical treatment of many useful applications of chemistry.

Beginning September 1, the daily exercises alternate between heat and mineralogy until these subjects are completed, then the daily exercises alternate between geology and electricity, the geology being completed by the close of the term, December 23. This term also closes with an examination, covering the essential parts of the subjects studied during the term, which all cadets who have not shown a prescribed proficiency in daily work are required to take.

Beginning January 1, the remainder of the course in electricity is completed by the end of February. This mid-winter term involves an examination, if necessary, as prescribed for the terms ending June 1 and December 23.

The course in heat is short, but it is a comprehensive elementary course intended to embrace what is most applicable to subsequent work at the Academy and what is most useful in general education.

The course in geology is a brief but scientific presentation of the essential elements of this branch of science.

The mineralogy is an eminently practical course consisting of the descriptive study and the practical determination of the important minerals. The lithological and palæontological part of geology is accompanied in study by the continued practical examination of the objects described.

The course in electricity is a brief exposition of the leading electrical phenomena and their relations to each other. It includes a study of the general principles of the subject and of the typical machines, generators, motors and transformers, together with the more important uses of electricity. The laboratory exercises give experience with a number of the machines and in the use of a great variety of apparatus employed in the numerous forms of electric measurements. In this term the laboratory work is a part of the electrical course and all cadets enter the laboratory. All laboratory work is performed under the immediate supervision of an instructor.

TEXT BOOKS.

During all terms standard works on the respective subjects are available for reference both to cadets and instructors.