May 1 6, 1878] 



NATURE 



79 



pupils, might be constituted master. In the course of time the 

 practical signification of this title has been altered. Most of 

 those who obtain it do not propose to teach ; this title is only 

 useful to them as a public mark of their scientific instruction. 

 It is only in Germany that there still subsist some vestiges of the 

 rights formerly attached to the doctorate. It is true that in 

 consequence of the change which has taken place in the signifi- 

 cation of the title, and in consequence of the increasing speciali- 

 sation of the various branches of education, we require of doctors, 

 who wish to instruct, a most searching proof of their profound 

 knowledge of the subjects which they desire to be authorised to 

 profess. For the rest, in most of the German universities, the 

 legal rights of these doctors authorised to instruct, are exactly 

 the same"' as those of ordinary professors ; in some there are 

 certain restrictions which are of little practical importance. The 

 oldest masters, especially the ordinary professors, have no other 

 real advantage than that of having more completely at their 

 disposal the material means of study furnished by the State, 

 and necessary for instruction in certain departments of science ; 

 besides, they are legally intrusted with the conduct of the 

 university examinations, and, in fact, the State examinations are 

 oftenest intrusted to them, which naturally exercises a certain 

 influence on the most timorous students. But the influence of 

 examinations is much exaggerated. Inconsequence of the come- 

 and-go movement of the students, candidates are often tested by 

 examiners whose courses they have never attended. 



Of all our university institutions, that of privat-doant is what 

 most confounds strangers. They are astonished, not without 

 envying us, at finding among us so many young men disposed to 

 devote themselves to hard scientific work, for the most insigni- 

 ficant fees, without fixed salary and without any assured prospect 

 for the future. And, always from the practical and material 

 point of view, they wonder that the faculties admit so easily, 

 and with such complaisance, these young people who may, at 

 any moment, be transformed from assistants into competitors, 

 and that in a situation so delicate, the employme»t of annoying 

 methods of competition is so rare and exceptional a thing. 



The right of filling vacant chairs, as well as that of giving 

 authorisation to the privat docenten belong to the faculty, i.e., 

 to the assembly of the ordinary professors, although the former 

 of these rights is not absolute, and the final appeal is not to the 

 faculty. These assemblies are in the midst of the German uni- 

 versities a rehc of the ancient colleges of doctors who inherited 

 the privil^es of the primitive corporations. They also repre- 

 sent the union of the graduates of old, but much reduced, and 

 organised with the concurrence of the governments. The 

 custom is that for the nomination of the ordinary professors the 

 faculty presents three candidates for the choice of the Govern- 

 ment. The latter, it is true, is not rigorously obliged to abide 

 by the candidates presented, but it is extremely rare that the 

 presentations of the faculty have not been respected except at 

 epochs whem party strifes were very hot. Unless for very potent 

 considerations, it is always an extremely weighty responsibility 

 for the representatives of the executive power to institute agaim^t 

 the wish of a competent body, a professor who will have to give 

 publicly the proofs of his merit before a numerous auditory. 



The members of the faculty have the strongest motives for 

 strengthening as much as possible the teaching body. To be 

 able to give one's self with joy to the labours of the profes- 

 soriate, the most essential condition is that of being assured 

 that you will not have to speak before too small a num- 

 ber of intelligent auditors. Moreover, the income of many 

 of the professors depends to a large extent on the number 

 of students. Each professor ought, then, to desire that 

 the faculty to which he belongs draws as many and as intelligent 

 students as possible. This end can only be attained if all the 

 masters — professors and privat docenten — are chosen from among 

 the most distfnguished men. On the other hand, the efforts 

 made by a professor to accustom his students to work ener- 

 getically and with intelligence, can only be successful if he is 

 seconded by the other members of the faculty. Finally, the 

 concoiurse of distinguished colleagues contributes to maintain, in 

 university circles, a more interesting, more instructive, and more 

 active life. To make these reasons yield to other considerations 

 a faculty must already have fallen very low, have lost not only the 

 feeling of its dignity, but also that of the commonest worldly 

 prudence ; such a faculty would soon come to ruin. 



As to the phantom of a rivahy among the professors, with 

 which it is sought sometimes to frighten public opinion, nothing 

 of the kind can be produced when the teachers and the students 



are what they ought to be. In the first place, it is only in large 

 universities that there exi-t two chairs for the same branch of 

 science ; and in this case, if there is no difference between the 

 official definition of the two chairs, there is certainly one between 

 the scientific tendencies of the two professors, and these may 

 divide the work in such a way that each reserves the subjects in 

 which he is most competent. Two distinguished professors, 

 who are thus complementary to each other, are so powerful a 

 centre of attraction to students that neither of the two need fear 

 to see the number of his auditory diminish, when even a 

 certain number of the less zealous may divide and follow only 

 one of the two courses. 



The injurious effects of rivalry are especially to be feared when 

 one of the professors does not feel himself established in his 

 scientific position. Even this may not exercise any influence 

 upon the decisions of the faculty so long as the case concerns 

 only one or a small number of the voters. 



l"he exclusive domination of one scientific school may be more 

 unfortunate for a faculty than the personal interests of which I 

 have spoken. It may in fact be foreseen that when the school 

 will have had its day, the students will gradually resort to other 

 universities. Years may thus pass, and the faculty be paralysed 

 for a long time. 



It is easy to see, under the sway of this system, how many 

 efforts the universities have made to attract to them all the scien- 

 tific leaders of Germany ; for this it is enough to inquire how 

 many men of original genius are found outside the universities. 

 We may have some idea of the result of such an inquir)-, for we 

 are rallied on the fact that all German science is a science of 

 professors. If we consider England, we find immediately men 

 like Humphrey Davy, Faraday, Darwin, Grote, who have no 

 connection with the English universities. In Germany, on the 

 contrary, except the savants whom the Government have excluded 

 for religious or political motives, like David Strauss, and except 

 those who, in the quality of members of German academies, 

 have the right of giving lessons in the universities, like Alexander 

 and Wilhelm von Humboldt, Leopold von Buch, &c., the number 

 of those who are found outside the universities is very small 

 relatively to the number of those who have been professors in 

 them. If we make the same calculation for England, we arrive 

 at an inverse proportion. I have always considered it a very 

 striking thing that the Royal Institution of London, a private 

 society wishing to have for its members and for a distinguished 

 public short courses of lectures on the progress of the natural 

 sciences, has been able permanently to attach to itself for this 

 purpose men having so great a scientific authority as Faraday and 

 Humphrey Davy. There is not here a question of salary ; evi- 

 dently these men were attracted by an auditory composed of men 

 and women of independent spirit. In Germany the universities 

 are incontestably the places of education which always exercise 

 the most powerfiil attraction for those who wish to instruct. It 

 is clear that this power of attraction arises from the fact that 

 we cannot hope to find elsewhere an audience, not only 

 well prepared, used to work, and capable of enthusiasm, but 

 also disposed to form personal convictions ; without a disposition 

 of this kind the science of the master will not bear fruit in the 

 pupil. 



Thus is manifest in all the organisation of our universities that 

 respect for the liberty of personal convictions, a respect more 

 profoundly rooted among the Germans than among their Aryan 

 brothers of the Celtic or of the Latin branch. Among these 

 political and practical motives have greater sway. They are 

 always disposed, and this, it appears, in all sincerity, to with- 

 draw from the spirit of research the examination of things which 

 appear to them indisputable as being the foundations of their 

 political, social, and religious organisation ; they consider it per- 

 fectly legitimate to tell the young people not to cast their eyes 

 beyond the limits which they themselves have agreed not to 

 pass. 



When we hold as indisputable a certain order of questions, 

 even when the domain of these questions is out of the way and 

 narrow, even when we have excellent intentions, it becomes 

 necessary to maintain in a determined path those who study, and. 

 the master must avoid everything which would disturb authority. 

 Then independent convictions can only be spoken of in a very 

 restricted sense. 



You have seen that our predecessors have judged otherwise. 

 If sometimes they have energetically combatted certain results of 

 scientific research, at least they have never attacked the root of 

 the tree. An idea which did not rest on a personal conviction. 



