152 



NATURE 



[Dec. 23, 1875 



The two days allowed for the examination in practical 

 work in the second part of the examination is scarcely 

 sufficient, and as the number of candidates increases, 

 more time will certainly be required. The Board recom- 

 mends some alterations in and additions to the regulations 

 for the Natural Sciences Tripos, which will accomplish 

 the object it has in view." 



The Biological Schools of the older Universities, on 

 account of their recent origin, are still in a far from 

 settled state. Men who have had a previous education 

 in some other medical school enter as undergraduates, 

 and on more than a single occasion these have had the 

 opportunity of demonstrating to the less highly educated 

 of their year how great is the value of a knowledge of 

 human anatomy, and how excellent a scientific training 

 it forms. 



The Board of Natural Science Studies at Cambridge 

 mention as the first claim in favour of the greater stress 

 which it desires to lay on anatomy, that medical students 

 suffer from its omission, and are tempted to delay their 

 special work. We are not among those who believe that 

 the Universities will ever form good medical schools. 

 The advantage of the University curriculum is that it 

 prolongs the higher education through the period during 

 which the mind is acquiring its reasoning powers, and, as 

 a result, tends to strengthen these by continually vary- 

 ing the material to be reasoned on. Except as far as the 

 production of teachers of the subjects it inculcates are 

 concerned, it has not, and ought not to have, any direct 

 ulterior objects in view. If medicine is to be specially 

 studied we see no limits to the extension of the subjects 

 embraced within it. The practice of medicine by most is 

 hardly more than a trade, and why, as such, it should 

 be more highly favoured than any other special training it 

 is difficult to understand. 



The arguments in favour of making human anatomy a 

 part of the biological education are of a very different 

 nature, and are insuperable. The study of zoology may 

 be commenced at either end, with the simplest protozoa, or 

 with a foundation of human anatomy. Both of these have 

 their advantages. A glance at the previous education of 

 those who are, at the present day, devoting themselves to 

 the subject, shows that almost all who commenced it 

 after having mastered human anatomy, have devoted 

 themselves to the vertebrate sub-kingdom ; whilst those 

 who have commenced without any or with but little know- 

 ledge of anthropotomy, have taken to the invertebrata. 

 The intricacy of the higher forms, and the standard of 

 comparison afforded by the structure of the human frame, 

 naturally leads to a comparison of this with those of its 

 closest allies, and consequently places the vertebrata in a 

 more favourable position for investigation. It also helps 

 to develop a greater interest in human anatomy from the 

 light thrown on it by those of less elaborate organisation. 



The student who commences with the lowest sub-king- 

 doms has to acquire his training as well as his facts from 

 the simpler forms, amongst which there is so little corre- 

 lation that he is led to lay little stress on that general uni- 

 formity of type which seems to him to detract from the 

 interest of a group apparently presenting so little variety 

 among its different members. 



Under the existing system, therefore, the tendency of 

 the University education is to develop invertebrate rather 

 than vertebrate zoologists, and this condition is capable 

 of being modified in the direction of improvement by the 

 introduction of human anatomy mto the biological curri- 

 culum ; for then those who take up such subjects might 

 have the opportunity of acquiring the knowledge of ver- 

 tebrate anatomy to an extent which would place them in 

 a position that would prevent them from laying them- 

 selves open to the correction, by any anthropotomist, 

 of their otherwise shallow information on vertebrate 

 structure. 



As to the character of the human anatomy which is 



required by the student of biology, it is a mistake to sup- 

 pose that it is exactly that needed by the surgeon or 

 medical man. In almost all manuals of the subject great 

 stress has to be laid on relational anatomy, because this 

 is the aspect of the subject required by them. Never- 

 theless a very fair and biologically valuable know- 

 ledge of the structure of the human body can be 

 acquired without any necessity for so much time being 

 spent in the mastery of the exact relations, through the 

 v/hole of their course, of vessels and nerves. A thorough 

 training in osteology, the disposition of the various viscera 

 and nerve centres, and the structure of the organs of 

 sense, together with a comparatively slight acquaintance 

 with the exact course followed by each nerve, artery, and 

 vein, is all that is required by the majority of comparative 

 anatomists. Upon such a basis any special regional 

 relationships might be mastered in a short time with but 

 little difficulty, and if the student afterwards commenced 

 a medical training, he would do so on a footing of peculiar 

 advantage. 



The latter part of the report above quoted attracts 

 attention in another direction also. From it we learn 

 that " the subjects represented in the examination are 

 now so numerous and extensive that they have become 

 practically to a large extent alternative," This we very 

 much regret, and we are convinced that this tendency in 

 the direction of the system adopted at Oxford will be as 

 little satisfactory as it has proved in that University. It 

 has the effect of turning out a number of narrow specialists, 

 instead of, as it ought to do, starting the student in some 

 definite direction with a fund of general information, 

 which he will find invaluable after he has taken his 

 degree. 



THE BIRDS OF THE PELEW ISLANDS* 

 ''pHE eighth part of the " Journal des Musdum 

 J- Godeflfroy," which has been lately issued at Ham- 

 burg, contains an interesting article upon the Birds of the 

 Pelew Islands, from the pen of the well-known ornitholo- 

 gist. Dr. Otto Finsch, of Bremen. This group of islands 

 uritil recently almost unknown to naturalists, has of late 

 years been visited by several collectors in the employ- 

 ment of the House of Godeffroy, who have transmitted to 

 Europe full series of specimens of its natural productions. 

 Dr. Finsch, in conjunction with Dr. Hartlaub, has already 

 published various notices of these collections, and given 

 descriptions of several new and most interesting species 

 which they contained. The present memoir gives a 

 rhu7ne of the previous articles, and adds a complete 

 account of all that is yet known concerning the orni- 

 thology of this far-removed group of islands. The total 

 number of species of birds as yet ascertained to occur 

 within their limits is fifty-six, of which twelve are peculiar 

 to the group, and are not known to be found elsewhere. 

 Perhaps one of the most remarkable facts connected with 

 the ornithology of the Pelew Islands is the occurrence of a 

 Jungle Fowl {Gallus bankiva) — being the species generally 

 recognised as the original of our domestic fowl — in a wild 

 state. It is possible, however, that this may be an intro- 

 duction. It is singular also to note that the Nicobar 

 Pigeon {Caloenas nicobarica) has spread thus far to the 

 west. Noteworthy again is the entire absence, so far as 

 is hitherto known, of parrots and finches in these islands. 

 Dr. Finsch's excellent text furnishes complete details 

 upon these and other points of interest, and contains full 

 authorities for the occurrence of all the species attributed 

 to the avifauna of the Pelew Islands. Five well-executed 

 coloured plates give illustrations of some of the rarer 

 species and adorn the work. Of the physical features of 

 these islands an account has already appeared in a former 

 number of the same journal, together with an excellent 

 map of the group. 



* " Zur Omithologie der Sudsee-Inseln." I. Die Vogel der Palau-Gruppe. 

 Von Dr. Otto Finsch in Bremen. " Journal des Musdum Godeflfroy," Heft 

 vili., 187s. 



