Franklin P. Mall 143 



Paris, another by a visit to Berlin. Throughout this period he associated 

 only with the best, for there was a never-wavering desire in him to de- 

 vote his life to science. During this time he became a Privat decent in 

 the University of Basel and gave regular lectures there on histology.' 



In most of the continental universities any person approved by the 

 faculty may teach and thus new blood is constantly being infused long 

 before a fogy or a dog in the manger has been removed by a beneficent 

 Providence. There is thus maintained a constant competition for better 

 teaching within the walls of the' university, and strong young men are 

 brought to the front. If under tliese conditions a young scientist takes 

 deep root without being spoon-fed or coerced, and commands a broad 

 field, adding to its borders, the greatest assurance has been given that he 

 will remain active and productive until he is three score and ten. In 

 America, we frequently find recent graduates who tell us that they would 

 follow an academic career if their future were assured as far as salary 

 is concerned. Little do they realize that this attitude of mind alone 

 should exclude them absolutely from such a career. Unfortunately, we 

 seem to have some university presidents who are as easily deceived by 

 such " scientists " as the public is by a Mesmer. Within a year, I have 

 known of a president Avho, when seeking a great anatomist for a rich 

 university, selected a man who had done no scientific work whatever 

 and had never been tested, simply on his own assurance that he would 

 " try to do something." 



In 1857 the chair of anatomy at Basel became vacant, and, as is cus- 

 tomary, the faculty sought the best available man. They found in His 

 an able earnest young scientist of the best training, tested through free- 

 dom and research, whose work had been continued with increasing suc- 

 cessful results through the three years of leisure following his advance- 

 ment to the doctorate. A man who had studied a subject' for its own 

 sake ° and had contributed to it, was more likely to represent it well than 

 one who had studied it for other rewards. Only too often do we see 

 scholars whose work is good and imitative, but net profound, shift from 

 one thing to another in order to keep before the public in an upward 

 career; they find themselves sterile at forty and have to be shelved in 

 some good berth as an active " pensioner," at fifty. To avoid this dan- 

 ger, great productive men must sit in faculties, for they alone are able 

 to recognize genius' in a young man. 



When the Chancellor of the University informed His of his appoint- 

 ment as professor of anatomy and physiology, he said : " We have thrown 

 you into the water, learn to swim;" and the remark was appropriate, 

 for the new profes?or had never served an apprenticeship in the teach- 



