S The Scottish Naturalist. 



Museums : botanical or zoological gardens : her- 

 baria : libraries : laboratories. 



6. Adequate assistance. 



7. Abolition of incongruous duties. 



8. Adequate superannuation allowance : and early super- 



annuation. 



9. Mode of teaching : substitution of the tutorial or 



demonstrational system. 

 c. — As regards the Mode of appointment, — 



10. Merit should be the sole ground : selection of the 



fittest. 



11. Provision of adequate holiday leisure, with facility 

 for foreign travel and study. 



i2. Open competition : abolition of obsolete or mis- 

 chievous restrictions. 



13. Invitation or gift in exceptional cases. 



14. Abolition of personal canvas. 



15. Abolition of the Testimonial nuisance. 



16. Appointment of duly qualified, unbiassed, patrons or 



electors : abolition of close monopolies. 



17. Establisment of Fellowships and Special Lecturer- 



ships. 



18. The just appropriation or allocation of Bursaries. 



19. Uniformity in the value of Degrees, and in the prin- 



ciple of their bestowal : abolition of the practice 

 of sale without examination. 



In all probability, very few educated men will be found who 

 object to the proposition, that it is desirable to appoint the best 

 qualified man to a vacant University chair, as to any other species 

 of appointment. And yet it is a fact, according to my experi- 

 ence — so far as regards Britain and her Colonies — that very 

 rarely indeed are Chairs of Natural Science bestowed on the 

 only ground on which they should be conferred — that of merit :t 

 very seldom does the best qualified man get the appointment 

 for which he is — perhaps eminently — fitted. That he fails to do 



t The Lancet of November 26, 1870 (p. 749), in commenting on the Testimo- 

 nial Nuisance, remarks, that in medical, as in scientific, appointments now-a-days, 

 " the choice that is made usually turns upon some question that only those un- 

 derstand who are behind the scenes ! " 



