66 The Scottish Naturalist. 



to Natural History ! To give an example of both a recent and 

 a public kind. Only the other day, the University of Otago, 

 New Zealand, advertised for candidates to fill its proposed 

 " Chair of Natural Science." The knowledge required was "an 

 extensive acquaintance with all the departments of Natural 

 Science — as well as with Chemistry ', Mining, and Agriculture — 

 theoretical and practical ! + Moreover, the Professor elect was, 

 and is, to be Curator of a General Museum \ and the University 

 Council intimated, " it is expected the Professor will throw a 

 large amount of enthusiasm into this department of his duty ! ' 

 For this chair there were, I am told, twenty-three competitors. 

 The unfortunate individual, who secures the favour of the Otago 

 University Council, will find himself, I am disposed to think, in 

 a very false position in more ways than one! % 



In strong contrast to this kind of " extensive acquaintance" 

 with science is the knowledge of the man who makes himself 

 master of a limited subject — whatever it may be — by resolutely 

 studying, in the fint place, all that has been written upon it in the 

 chief European languages. Such knowledge is critical and pro- 

 found: it alone is entitled to the designation of "learning;" and 

 it is of a kind calculated to cemmand the respect alike of the stu- 

 dent and of the public. A profound knowledge of any department 

 of science now-a-days requires, at least, a reading acquaintance 

 with the chief continental languages, — especially German and 

 French, Italian and Danish.' It implies also a familiarity with 

 Latin, and a certain knowledge of Greek. On the other hand, 

 a profound knowledge of a department of science must be 

 based partly, at least, on personal observation and experiment. 

 It almost implies a certain amount or kind of original research. 



Few of our Professors of Natural Science, however, pos- 

 sess the necessary linguistic qualifications for acquainting 



t The advertisement in the newspapers of Edinburgh and London, of date 

 September, 1870, bore that, "While an extensive acquaintance with Natural 

 Science is indispensable, the University Council have resolved to give a prefer- 

 ence ceteris paribus to the gentleman who shall produce the most satisfactory 

 evidence of a lility to teach Chemistry and Mineralogy ', and the practical appli- 

 cations of these sciences to Agriculture and Mining respectively." 



% In the German Universities there is a comparatively elaborate division of 

 labour among a large staff of lecturers— numbering (e.g.,) at Heidelberg no less 

 than sixty. 



