Address by Sir David Gii.l. 35 



In the higher departments of all kinds of scientific training it 

 is not too much to say that the capacity for and the practice of 

 original research on the part of the Professor is essential for the 

 creation of a vigorous school of thought and healthy aspiration on 

 part of the students. This view was w^ell stated by Sir Michael 

 Foster in his Presidential Address to Section I. at the Toronto Meet- 

 ing of the British Association in 1897. He said: 



" Xow each teacher, however modest his post, feels and 

 says that the authorities under whom he works are bound to 

 provide him with the means of leading his students along the 

 only path by which Science can be truly entered upon, that by 

 which each learner repeats for himself the fundamental observa- 

 tions on which the Science is based. 



" But there is a still larger outcome from the professorial 

 chair than the training of the students ; these are opportunities 

 not for training only, but also for research. And perhaps in no 

 respect has the development during the past thirteen years been 

 so marked as this. Never so clearly as during this period has 

 it become recognized that each post for teaching is no less a 

 post for learning, that amongst academic duties the making 

 knowledge is as urgent as the distributing it, and that among 

 professorial qualifications the gift of garnering in new truths is 

 at least as needful as facility in the didactic exposition of old 

 ones." 



Although these words were spoken more especially in connection 

 with the teaching of Physiolog). they hold to the full as true with 

 respect to all the experimental sciences ; and in connection with the 

 teaching equipment of our Colleges one can hardlv insist too strongly 

 on their importance. 



To increase the number of Chairs is certainly a desirable object ; 

 but it is even still more necessary to find the right kind of Professor, 

 and provide him with assistance in amount and qualitv sufficient 

 to allow him reasonable leisure for research. 



The Professor who has not that opportunitv, whose hours of 

 teaching alone make up nearly the hours of a schoolmasters duty, 

 is practically debarred from research, and his teaching, unless he is 

 a man of exceptional energy and strength of constitution, is sure 

 to lapse into dull routine and to lose all that fire and interest which 

 the pursuit of original thought and research can alone give to it. 



It is eminently satisfactory to find that, in connection with the 

 new Chairs of Botany and Zoology at the South African College it 

 is expressly stated, that, as the number of classes in each subject will 

 be comparatively small, original research will be regarded as part 

 of the Professor's duties. 



The South African College has been congratulated on obtaining 

 able men to fill these Chairs notwithstanding the modest salaries it 

 was able to offer; no doubt the temptation offered bv opportunitv 

 for research was the real secret of that success. There is no man 

 worth his salt who would not regard such a position as ])referable 

 to one more highly paid but without that opportunit\. If ruir 



