Mr. Johnston's Notes on the University of Christiania. 247 



I made an attempt to see Keyset's laboratory,* and he also did 

 me the honour of calling upon me. But we missed each other ; 

 and severe domestic affliction was an ample excuse for my having 

 no subsequent opportunity of seeing him during my short stay. 

 It is to the credit of the Norwegian Storthing, that they have pro- 

 vided a splendid philosophical apparatus for their national Univer- 

 sity. " It is so fine," said Berzelius to me, when I visited him in 

 Stockholm, " that all the apparatus of the three Swedish schools 

 put together would be nothing like it." On account of this ap- 

 paratus, chiefly, I regretted not having made the acquaintance of 

 Keyser — for every experimental philosopher knows how interesting 

 it is to see the workshops and tools of his fellow labourers in differ- 

 ent parts of the world. 



What a fine field there is for a diligent analytical chemist in 

 Norway ! — and how would the patriotic Norwegians honour the 

 man who, from the far north, should send forth the voice of dis- 

 coveries that should do honour to their beloved land ! The Norwe- 

 gians are a brave people — a kind people — and an intelligent people 

 — what hinders then that they should become also a learned and 

 scientific people ? Their minds must be alive to high thoughts; for 

 their very mountains speak sublime things to them. 



Rathke is professor of natural history, — a kind gentlemanly 

 man, and who has seen a good deal of other countries. " It is my 

 duty, as it is my pleasure, to pay attention to strangers," he said to 

 me ; and I accordingly found him willing to devote to me as much 

 of his time as his other duties would permit. 



The Museum, t which is under his care, is, like the university, 

 still in its infancy, and is not therefore very extensive. The ob- 

 jects of curiosity are chiefly minerals and birds. The minerals are 

 dirty, and in bad order ; and many of the birds are very indifier- 

 ently got up. Zoology has more attractions for Rathke than mi- 

 neralogy ; the superintendence of the mineralogical part of the mu- 

 seum should therefore he confided to Esmarck. What the museum 

 wanted in interest, however, the Professor made up for by his de- 

 sire to please and gratify; and I owe him this testimony for his 

 gratuitous attentions. Professor Jameson is well known in Nor- 

 way, and Rathke was anxious to acknowledge the honour done to 

 him by his being elected a member of the Wernerian Society, of 

 which Professor Jameson is president. 



The Botanic Garden is also under the superintendence of Rath- 



• That some little is done, or ought to be done, in the rudiments of practical 

 chemistry, may be inferred from the " Catalogus Lectionum" — " Laboratorium 

 Universitatis Chemicum tempore utrinque commodo iis patebit qui experimenta 

 chemica agere cupiverint." 



•f- So much has lately been said of museums, and admittance to them, in this 

 Journal, that I may insert the following two lines from the Catalogus Lectionum 

 already quoted : — " Musaeum Historiae Naturalis et Hortus Botanicus Universi- 

 toti*, horis coipmodis patebunt iis qui voluerint collectiones inspicere," 



