The Scottish Naturalist. 65 



be superficial in proportion as it professes to comprehend an 

 extensive range of sciences or subjects. Concentration is a 

 condition of profound learning. The true sava?it — the man 

 who is learned in the proper sense of the term — concentrates his 

 attention on a specific, or special, limited department of Science. 

 Professor Tait of Edinburgh, in his opening address for 1870, 

 said very truly, —and his opinion will be echoed by all our high- 

 est scientific authorities, in proportion to their own acquirements 

 — "Scientific knowledge hrs reached such an immense develop- 

 ment*, that no one man can now possibly master thoroughly more 

 than one or two of its many branches. There can be no 'Ad 

 mirable Crich tons' in our days!"t As regards Natural History, 

 the further assertion would be strictly true, that no one man of ordi- 

 nary capabilities can master more than a section of one of its const. - 

 tuent sciences. There is, for instance, no living Botanist, who is 

 equally distinguished in Cryptogamic and Phaenogamic Botany; 

 while Botanists are distinguished — if distinguished at all — for 

 their knowledge of particular groups of Phaenogams — such as 

 Rosa?, Salices, Hieracia, Rubi ; or of those of this or that 

 country or county; or of Ferns, Mosses, Lichens, Fungi, Alga?, 

 Diatoms, or Desmids; or of only particular groups of Alga 1 , 

 or Fungi, such as those which are microscopic, or fresh water, 

 or parasitic in or on living bodies. J And yet there are men, 

 who profess their perfect acquaintance with the whole range ot 

 Natural Science — expressing their readiness, and asserting their 

 ability, to teach all its departments : men who are equally ready 

 to accept Chairs of Chemistry, or Natural History ; or Chemis- 

 try and Natural History; or of Natural and Physical Science ; 

 or of Applied Science ; or of the specific Sciences of Botany, 

 Zoology, Geology, and probably all the other "ologies" pertaining 



*"The Horizon of the Sciences," says the late distinguished Master of Trinity, 

 Dr. Whewell, " spreads wider and wider before us as we advance in our task of 

 taking a survey of the vast domain.'' And long before his day, the Poet wrote— 



" One Science only will one genius fit, 

 So vast is art, so narrow human wit.'' 



+ As reported in "Nature," December 1st, 1870, p. 90. 



% Thus, on the continent there are Journals, as well as endless Books and 

 Papers, devoted exclusively to Cryptogamic Botany; or to Entomology, Ornitho- 

 logy, and other departments of Zoology. 



