use. It is more
economical and more effective for the student to pay his share of the
cost of printing, than to spend his time in making imperfect notes and
perhaps ultimately writing them out more fully.

The lecture system is less suitable for giving instruction in
engineering subjects than in general subjects, such for example as
history, sociology, and economics, since technical engineering
subjects usually include principles and more or less numerical data
that must be stated briefly and clearly.

If a student has had an opportunity to study a subject from either a
textbook or a printed copy of the lecture notes, then comments by the
teacher explaining some difficult point, or describing some later
development, or showing some other application or consequence of the
principle, may be both instructive and inspiring; but the main work of
teaching engineering subjects should be from carefully prepared
textbooks. However, an occasional formal lecture by an instructor or a
practicing engineer upon some subject already studied from a textbook
can be a means of valuable instruction and real inspiration, provided
the lecture is well prepared and properly presented.

In the preceding discussion the term "lecture" has been employed as
meaning a formal presentation of information; but there is another
form of lecture, a demonstration lecture, which consists of an
explanation and discussion by the instructor of an experiment
conducted before the class. The prime purpose of the experiment and
the demonstration lecture is to explain and fix in mind general
principles. This form of lecture is an excellent method of giving
information; and if the student is questioned as to the facts
disclosed and is required to discuss the principles established, it is
an effective means of training the student to observe, to analyze, and
to describe.

=Recitation system=

This system of instruction consists in assigning a lesson upon which
the student subsequently recites. In subjects involving mathematical
work, the recitation may consist of the presentation of the solution
of examples or problems; but in engineering subjects the recitation
usually consists either of answers to questions or of the discussion
of a topic.

The question may be either a "fact" question or a "thought" question.
If the main purpose is to give information, the "fact" question is
used, the object being to determine whether the student has acquired a
particula