274 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Sept. 



science as applied to the arts, as to give the education necessary 

 to enable those who receive it to take their places as original 

 investigators in the advancement of theoretical science, and in 

 connection with this to bring out the true value of physical science 

 as a means of securins; the highest mental culture. Viewed with 

 reference to these ends, Oxford is undoubtedly an excellent 

 Science school ; and a University which offers its highest honours, 

 in courses, in which practical chemistry and physics, and dissec- 

 tions of invertebrate animals, constitute important parts, cannot 

 be regarded as unfavourable to the cultivation of science. It 

 must be admitted however that these improvements have been 

 effected only after severe contests between the advocates of modern 

 science and the conservative element in the University, contests 

 in which my valued friend, Dr. Acland, well known to many of 

 us here, has borne an influential part. 



MOVEMENT IN EDINBURGH. 



Edinburgh has as yet no organized Science school, and has 

 undoubtedly been falling behind the English schools in its repu- 

 tation for training in natural science. This is, however, a relative 

 rather than an actual decadence, and there is a very strong desire 

 on the part of many of the friends of the University to restore its 

 ancient reputation in this respect. In evidence of this we have 

 the recent endowment of the Baxter Chair of EngiueeriDg, and 

 the still more recent offer of Sir Roderick I. Murchison to give 

 £6,000 as the endowment of a Chair of Geology, which I am 

 informed the Government is likely to supplement with a like sum. 

 The Department of Science and Art has also attached to the 

 University a museum on the plan of that of South Kensington, 

 under Prof. Archer; but few lectures are delivered in connection 

 with it. No Institution in Great Britain has a better field for 

 science education than Edinburgh, and it possesses many excel- 

 lent teachers, but their action is to some extent paralyzed by 

 want of facility for mutual co-operation, and by the want of some 

 professorships necessary to complete the course of study. In the 

 meantime, there are excellent practical classes in chemistry, ex- 

 perimental physics and botany, and there is an academical course 

 for a science degree. In this course the candidate is required to 

 have the degree of B.A., M.A., or M.D., or to hold certificates of 

 having passed the examinations in two of the departments of the 

 University course, or to have matriculated in the University of 



