Dec, 6. 1877] 



NA TURE 



103 



low limit to which the water recedes during the monthly 

 spring-tides. In no case less than thirty, and not unfre- 

 quenily mo-e than forty feet represents the vertical height 

 of the rise and fall of the tide on these occasions, the 

 waves on [their retreat exposing to view and rendering 

 accessible an extent of rocks and life-teeming pools that 

 constitute a veritable elysium to the marine zoologist or 

 botanist. The situation of Jersey, again, is such as to 

 render it not only readily accessible to English naturalists 

 and students, accompanied with just that amount of sea- 

 passage requisite to satisfy the marine predilections of our 

 countrymen, but it is also most conveniently reached from 

 France, Belgium, Holland, and other Northern European 

 countries, and which will thus invest the institution with 

 international utility. Paris, indeed, already supplies a 

 considerable number of the numerous summer visitors to 

 the island, and from these no doubt might be enticed a 

 strong contingent of students for the laboratories. 



As will be found in the advertisement already referred 

 to, a special appeal is addressed to the scientific section 

 of the community rather than to the general public 

 for the funds required for the successful establish- 

 ment of this institution, and it is certainly most desirable 

 that an enterprise calculated hereafter to confer so great 

 advantages upon this more limited class should receive a 

 fair quota of support through its ranks. The sum total 

 required, in fact — 5,000/. — for the founding of this zoo- 

 logical station, and all accessory departments, is so 

 comparatively small as to place it not quite beyond 

 the pa'e of hope that sufficient enthusiasm to effect 

 the purpose may be yet forthcoming from among the 

 more wealthy devotees to the shrine of science, and in 

 emulation of the praiseworthy example set on the other 

 side of the Atlantic by Mr. John Anderson, the munificent 

 founder and endower of the Pemkese Island Station. At 

 all events, it is scarcely to be anticipated that so desirable 

 an undertaking, replete with such promise of future 

 advantage to the scientific world, will long lack the 

 essential " sinews of war," considering that a contribution 

 by each member of one only of our leading metropolitan 

 scientific societies of less than one-half of his annual sub- 

 scription to that society, would more than suffice to de- 

 fray the whole expenditure contemplated. Through the 

 kind liberality of a few, moreover, and the financial 

 confidence of others, a small but substantial nucleus 

 has been already formed, and it is confidently hoped 

 that the full sum needed may yet be raised in time for 

 naturalists and the public generally to participate in 

 the advantages the Channel Islands' Zoological Station 

 and Museum of Pisciculture will place at their disposal, 

 so early as the summer of the year 1878. 



In conclusion it is perhaps desirable to note that in 

 drawing up the legal foundation of this Channel Islands' 

 institution the strictest care has been taken to permanently 

 exclude all possible chance of the society's premises being 

 used for any of those attractions of an entirely irrelevant 

 and unscientific nature more usually associated with exhibi- 

 tions of the living inhabitants of the ocean, and the 

 existence of which must ever constitute an insuperable 

 barrier to that good service to science which these last- 

 named establishments might otherwise contribute. It is 

 only under such restrictions as are above set forth that 

 patronage and support are solicited. In recognition of the 

 purely scientific status of this enterprise, the members of 

 the Executive Committee, or Directors of the Society, 

 have also unanimously resolved to accord their services 

 as such members gratuitously ; and it is further j pro 

 posed, so as to divest the undertaking of any merely 

 speculative aspect, that all profits arising from the busi- 

 ness of the hociety, beyond what would yield to the 

 shareholders a return of five per cent, shall be devoted to 

 the further development of the institution, or otherwise 

 towards the aid and promotion of scientific research. 



St. Helier's, Jersey ' W. Saville Kent 



GERMAN UNIVERSITIES 



'X*HERE have been comparisons made recently both in 

 -*■ this and in other journals between the Universities 

 of Germany and those of this country, and as the 

 university question is at present giving rise to much 

 discussion, it may be useful to give some statistics with 

 reference to the former. Such statistics are much more 

 easily attainable for Germany than for England, as there 

 are two German publications in which all the important 

 information concerning the various universities of the 

 empire is systematically arranged, viz., the DeutscJu 

 Universitdts Kaletidar and the Deutsche akade?ntsches 

 Jahrbiich. To obtain similar information concerning 

 the universities of the United Kingdom it would be 

 necessary to obtain a copy of the calendar of each uni- 

 versity. Our statistics are obtained from the JahrbiicJi, 

 which contains information not only relating to the uni- 

 versities, but also to the technical and high schools, learned 

 societies, and libraries of the country. Some such pub- 

 lication is wanted here, and might be made to include 

 not only our various universities and colleges, but also 

 our principal public schools. The Jahrbuch includes, 

 moreover, the Russo-German University of Dorpat, the 

 Universities of Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck, Prague, Czer- 

 nowitz, Basel, but these we shall not take into account, 



Germany has in all twenty-one universities, each comp'ete 

 in all departments. The number of students matriculated 

 and non-matriculated attending each, mostly in the 

 1876-77 semester was as follows : — 



Thus, then, there are about 18,000 matriculated stu- 

 dents attending the twenty-one universities of Germany, 

 under a teaching staff of about 1,300 paid professors, 

 besides about 450 privat-docenten. Of the students, 

 about one-third belong to the philosophical faculty, the 

 faculty in which the sciences are included, Unfortu- 



' In "Philosophy" are included the physical and natural scie«ces,_ 

 ' The Giessen students are divided into Hessian and non-Hessian, noi. 

 according to faculties. 



3 Including loo students of pharmacy. 



4 Inchiding 9 students of forestry. 



5 Including 97 mathematical and natural science students, these being ?, 

 saparate faculty et Strassburg. The figures are for 1875-6. 



6 Including S3 students in political economy and 141 in natural science 

 these subjects forming separate fa-rHlties at Tubingen, 



