27G THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Sept. 



States, science and teclinical education are carried to a still hioiier 

 point in Germany and Switzerland, which perhaps excel all other 

 countries in this respect. In the former country, while every 

 one is educated, general education is made to lead to technical 

 education in a great variety of schools, suited topersons in all 

 conditions of life, and culminating in the great technical Univer- 

 sities, a kind of institution as yet unknown in the English-speaking- 

 world, unless Cornell University can be regarded as a step in this 

 direction. In Germany there are now no less than six technical 

 Universities, and a large number of technical collesies or higher 

 schools to train students for these Universities, or for directly 

 entering into employments in arts and manufactures. 



TECHNICAL UNIVERSITIES. 



Mr. Scott Russell, in his work on Technical Education, takes 

 the Polytechnicou, or Technical University of Switzerland, as an 

 example of the most perfect organization of this kind ; and I may 

 abridge from his notes the following facts as to its scope and 

 organization. Its courses of study are arranged under 145 

 subjects, divided among 31 professors, 10 assistant professors, and 

 16 private teachers and lecturers. They consist entirely of 

 science, applications of science to the arts, and modern languages, 

 literature and history. Among the few subjects not included 

 under these heads are the Swiss federal consititution and rights, 

 and the Biblical History of Creation, a subject scarcely thought 

 of in the English world, even in the education of theological 

 students. The students are either regular or "free," the latter 

 taking selected courses ; but of 762 students only 173 are free 

 or occasional. In the regular programme of study the 145 

 subjects above referred to are divided into eight groups : (1) 

 Preparatory subjects necessary for those who come imperfectly 

 prepared; (2) subjects relating to architecture and building; (3) 

 civil engineering ; (4) mechanical engineering ; (5) practical 

 chemistry ; (6) agriculture and forestry ; (7) subjects necessary 

 for scientific workers, professors and teachers ; (8) a general 

 course of philosophy, statemanship, literature, art, and political 

 economy. In aid of these courses of study the University posses- 

 ses an astronomical observatorv, arranaed for teachins; observers ; 

 a chemical and mechanical laboratory, for experiments in new 

 inventions, &c. ; a chemical laboratory, for ordinary practical 

 teaching, which Mr. Scott Russell calls a palace of science in 



