70 The Scottish Naturalist. 



school ! The great advantage of ability to execute one's own 

 drawings is constantly being illustrated in the publications of 

 our most eminent Naturalists — some of whose plates, if not 

 works, would never have seen the light had it not been for the 

 possession of such an accomplishment by their authors.* 



In these days of " Popular" lecturing and " Popular" writing — 

 when a Professor is incessantly called upon to appear before 

 Mechanics' Institutes, and all kinds of Public Assemblies,tas well 

 as more private Societies, and to contribute to a superabundant 

 Periodical Literature, including the weekly and even the daily 

 Press — it is at all events desirable that he should possess the not 

 very common power of interesting the general Public by a popu- 

 lar style of writing and address. Unquestionably our Professors 

 only consult their own interests in developing this class of ac- 

 complishments, to the sacrifice, perhaps, of all that is original 

 or profound : for Popular lecturing and writing — catering for 

 the Public gratification in Winter lectures, and Serial contribu- 

 tions — " pays" infinitely better than original research, which, in 

 nine cases out of ten, not only does not "pay" at all, in the com- 

 mercial sense, but involves the investigator in heavy — some- 

 times ruinous — personal expense. J " Popular" qualifications 

 for lecturing and writing de omnibus rebus are greatly more com- 

 mon than special qualifications for the advancement of different 

 departments of science. Popularisers abound — men having 

 simply the " gift of the gab," as -we call it expressively in Scot- 



•' Most ignorant of what they're most assured." 



* For instance, the magnificent works of Harvey (of Dublin), on Marine Algae; 

 or of Greville (of Edinburgh), on Diatomacese. 



+ Including Ladies classes, which are sometimes so well attended [e.g., in 

 Edinburgh and Glasgow,] that they " pay'' better than the university male stu- 

 dents' classes, and offer the strongest temptation to mere Popularisation, rather 

 than to original research. 



X This may be illustrated by the following incident. Recently a popular 

 article I had written with little trouble for a Provincial newspaper had its des- 

 tination changed, and appeared as a Review in a Metropolitan Quarterly. It was 

 paid for at the rate of £6 ios. per sheet. But an elaborate paper, the fruit, per- 

 haps, of several years' original research, in the same Quarterly is not paid lor at 

 all : and if the subject is very abstruse, or not considered scientifically orthodox, 

 it may not even be accepted for publication ! 



