

NATURAL SCIENCE 



A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress. 



No. 21. Vol. III. NOVEMBER. 1893. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Science — Educational and Professional. 



AT the recent opening of the new buildings for the Department of 

 Human Anatomy at Oxford, a question of considerable interest 

 came into prominence. As everyone knows, Science has two sides, 

 and the two sides, except in the most elementary stages, have a very 

 different aspect so far as study is concerned. All the natural 

 sciences have their applied side. Geology is concerned with agri- 

 culture and with mining ; Botany with agriculture, with pharmacy, 

 forestry, and so forth ; Anatomy and Physiology with medicine ; 

 Zoology with veterinary work, pisciculture, etc. As purely edu- 

 cational subjects and as ends in themselves leading to research 

 and the advancement of knowledge, they are at least equally 

 important. The one side appeals to the practical man — the follower 

 in philosophy of Bacon ; the other to the idealist, the follower 

 of Plato. But it is a hard world, and as the practical side offers 

 a livelihood, students are attracted to it. This rules especially 

 in the department of Biology, as a medical career attracts so many 

 men. What is a University to do ? Its highest function certainly is 

 the Platonic side of science, and the great endowments of the past 

 would seem best used when directed to learning. But what are 

 professors and laboratories without students ? Cambridge effects a 

 reconciliation by having a large medical school and by giving many 

 fellowships to Biology men, who research and batten on the fees 

 of medical students. Oxford has a small but growing medical school, 

 but the few biological fellows she has had, have with all haste shaken 

 the dust of Oxford from their feet. 



Demonstrators at Oxford. 



Another pressing problem at Oxford is the status of demon- 

 strators. The habit of the University has been to consider the demon- 

 strators as mere personal appanages of the Professors. The result of 



