University Reform. 315 



we may here extend to all required studies the 

 suggestion already made in regard to chemistry, 

 that only a minimum of attainment should be 

 expected of the whole body of students. In the 

 case of the sciences, only so much attention should 

 be given to details as is requisite for the compre- 

 hension of methods and general results. For this 

 purpose, some knowledge of special facts is of 

 course requisite. We cannot understand the 

 atomic theory or the doctrine of definite propor- 

 tions without knowing something about oxygen, 

 hydrogen, and the other elements ; but it is not 

 necessary to learn all the ways in which the 

 metals are extracted from their ores. To under- 

 stand methods and results in biology, we need to 

 be acquainted with organs, fluids, and tissues, and 

 to have some knowledge of function as well as 

 of structure ; but we need not enter into the mer- 

 its and shortcomings of Mr. Gulliver's theory of 

 inflammation, or be particular as to the proper 

 classification of the Bryozoa. The mathemati- 

 cal course might perhaps be allowed to close with 

 plane trigonometry, and the course in classics 

 might be materially abridged. Far less attention 

 might be given to supremely useless matters, like 

 Greek prosody ; and the time now spent in com- 

 mitting to memory arbitrary rules for the scan- 



