6 2 The Scottish Naturalist. 



be led to cultivate his powers of observation and of generalisa- 

 tion ; that he should be taught the imperative value of accuracy 

 in the one, and of cautiousness in the other ; that he should be 

 trained in a practical way, by laboratory and field work, to col- 

 lect, preserve, experiment, describe, and classify. Every endeavour 

 should be made to impart enthusiasm in the study of Nature, its 

 objects and phenomena; to infuse a love of Science and of study 

 for their own sakes, as means of culture, and as valuable mental 

 acquisitions, as well as for their ultimate technical or economical 

 applications. Now all this cannot be achieved by the current 

 " Professorial system," by class-room harangues however eloqu- 

 ent, by mere rhetorical display. It can only be the fruit of object- 

 teaching — of the demonstrational, experimental, or practical 

 system — in which the example^ of the Professor is of infinitely 

 greater importance than his mere precept. Unless, therefore, 

 the Professor's own acquirements are genuine, it is simply im- 

 possible he can train up race after race of enthusiastic young 

 Naturalists. We have only to compare ourselves with Germany, 

 as regards the character of the Natural Science Students sent 

 forth from the Universities of the respective countries, to see 

 what are the fruits of real teaching qualifications on the one 

 hand, and of spurious ones on the other. We cannot for a 

 moment, compare ourselves favourably either as to the number, 

 or the character, of her naturalists, with Germany. In our own 

 country the number of Naturalists manufactured by our Univer- 

 sities is very small compared on the one hand, with the 

 number of Medical or other Students who attend Natural 

 Science Classes, and on the other, with the number of Non- 

 academical Naturalists, men of strong Natural History tastes, 

 and of substantial acquirements among the general popula- 

 tion, who have had no School or University teaching in Science 

 at all.J 



Next to the training of youth, our University Chairs of 

 Natural Science ought to be what they certainly are not — 

 centres for the general Cultivation of Science — for the extension 

 of the bounds of Scientific Knowledge — the diffusion of Scien- 



■f Exanplo plusquam ratione vivimus. 

 X Of this class of self- trained Naturalists, the late Hugh Miller may be fitly taken 

 as a type. 



