The advisability of giving all cadets, those destined for the line as well as for the staff, the same education has been questioned more than once. As long ago as 1843, a Board of Officers, of which General Scott was president, made certain criticisms of the course of instruction. It is interesting to quote the answer made by the Academic Board, for the ideas set forth therein express in general the opinions held today: The Academic Board believes that one of the most important objects of the Academy is to subject each cadet, previous to his promotion to a higher grade in the Army, to a thorough course of mental as well as military discipline to teach him to reason readily and accurately to apply right principles to cases of daily occurrence in the life of a soldier. They are satisfied that a strict course of mathematical and philosophical study, with applications to the various branches of military science, is by far the best calculated to bring about this end, and that the present scientific course at the Academy, the result of the experience of many years, is in its main feature such a course. They are aware that many of the cadets, as is the case with most of those who pursue a scientific course at other institutions, will have little occasion to make practical applications of the many mathematical problems that they meet, and that they may have passed over certain problems without thoroughly understanding their meaning in all their points. Still, if the course has been thoroughly taught, the reasoning faculties will have been strongly exercised and disciplined and a system of habit and thought acquired which is invaluable in the pursuit of any profession, and as desirable for the infantry or dragoon officer as for any other officer in the service. The officer whose mind has thus been disciplined and who is not forgetful of the duty he owes to the government that has furnished him with opportunities so valuable, will acquire facts and information in whatever station the interests of the service may place him. This discipline and system he will learn at an early age only, and nowhere so well as during his term of service at the Academy.