104 



NA TURE 



S^Dec. 6, 1877 



nately, in very few cases is the number of students 

 attending the scientific as distinct from the literary classes 

 given, and only in one or two universities has science as 

 yet been erected into a separate faculty. If we may take 

 the two universities, Strassburg and Tiibingen, in which 

 natural science forms a separate faculty as a criterion 

 from which to judge of the number of students of science 

 in the other universities, the proportion must be very large. 

 In Strassburg, of the 236 students whom we have placed 

 in the philosophical faculty, ninety- seven are students of 

 science, and in Tubingen 100, or something like one-third 

 of the whole philosophical faculty. Or again, if the 

 number of science students is at all in proportion to the 

 number of science- teachers, the position held by science 

 in German universities is in striking contrast to its 

 ros'tion in our universities and colleges. Of the profes- 

 sors, among whom we do not count the privat-docenten, 

 about one-half belong to the philosophical faculty, and 

 of these again, nearly one-half are teachers of science, 

 that is, in the philosophical faculty of the German univer- 

 sities there is one teacher on an average to every ten stu- 

 dents, and in science the proportion is considerably greater. 

 In these estimates we do not take account of the medical 

 faculty, in which, in most of the universities, there are 

 several chairs which might well be classed as belonging 

 to science generally. 



For example, the well-known anthropologist, Dr. 

 Virchow, the conclusion of whose address at the German 

 Association we give this week, is Professor of Pathology 

 at Berlin, and has been able to bring the results of his 

 special medical line of investigation to bear, in an im- 

 portant way, upon his anthropological researches. Both in 

 Berlin and elsewhere, other names of eminent medical 

 professors might be mentioned who have not only them- 

 selves made important contributions to science, but under 

 whom students are encouraged to do so likewise. 



Of the nature and extent of the scientific teaching in 

 German universities some idea may be formed from the 

 subjects represented by the teaching staff at Berlin, which 

 may fairly be taken as a type of the whole. In Berlin 

 then we find that there are (excluding the privat-docenten) 

 five professors of mathematics, two of astronomy, seven 

 of chemistry, five of physics, three of geology, four of 

 botany, two of zoology, one of meteorology, two of 

 geography, one of anthropology, and one of agriculture — 

 physiology and comparative anatomy being well repre- 

 sented in the medical faculty, and we might well have 

 included among teachers of science those who devote 

 themselves to the scientific investigation of languages. 

 But a mere statement of the number of teachers gives 

 no adequate idea of the means at the command of a 

 German University for training its students in science. 

 The number of teachers in each subject secures that 

 its various departments will be thoroughly worked 

 out, and gives a student a chance of following out any 

 specialty he may take up ; this is made still further 

 possible by the number and variety of institutions, 

 museums, laboratories, collections, &c., attached to each 

 university, not to speak of its large and comprehensive 

 library. In connection with Berlin alone there are twenty- 

 three scientific " Anstalten," as they are called, for practi- 

 cal investigation in connection with the various faculties. 

 Had we taken the numerous Realschule and the high and 

 polytechnic schools into account, where an education can 

 be obtained quite equal to that obtainable at most of our 

 universities and colleges, it would have been seen that 

 higher education in Germany leaves little to be desired. 



And in reference to the subject of our leader this week, 

 we would point to these Realschulen as embodying the 

 German id^ a of what practical training should he. The 

 carefully drawn-up time-tables of these schools are an 

 mstructive study, showing, as they do, that general mental 

 culture IS regarded as of the first importance in train- 

 ing a youth for the work pf the worjd. 



The Jahrbtich gives a statement of income and expendi- 

 ture in connection with only one or two of the universities. 

 Some interesting details, however, on the contributions of 

 the State to the universities, as well as on other points, 

 were given in a recent number of the Academy by Prof. 

 Ray Lankester : — 



" The sum expended by the North German States on 

 the twenty universities belonging to them is annually 

 more than 500,000/. The Imperial Government has ex- 

 pended upon the new University of Strassburg alone 

 70,000/, in one year. The University of Leipzig alone re- 

 ceives annually from the Saxon Government over 50,000/. 

 There are eight universities in North Germany which 

 are little, if at all, less costly, and there are eleven of 

 smaller size which receive each from 8,000/. to 20,000/. 

 annually. 



" In North Germany there is one university to every 

 two million inhabitants ; in Austria there is one to every 

 five miUions ; in Switzerland one for each million ; in 

 England one to every seven millions. In the twenty 

 North German universities there are 1,250 professors.^ 

 In the British Islands we ought to have sixteen uni- 

 versities and 1,000 professorships in order to come 

 up to the same level in this respect as North Ger- 

 many. The stipend (apart from fees) of a professor in a 

 German university ranges from 100/. to 600/. a year. As 

 a rule, at the age of five- and- thirty, a man in this career 

 may (in Germany) count on an assured income of 400/. 

 a year (with retiring pension). The expenditure on atten- 

 dants, libraries, laboratories, and officials may be calcu- 

 lated as being (in a well-conducted university) more than 

 equal in amount to the total of the professors' stipends. 

 Taking the average German professorial stipend at only 

 200/. a year, we find that 250,000/ must be spent annually 

 on this item alone in the North German States. : 



" In order to equip and carry on sixteen universities in 

 this country which should bear comparison with the Ger- 

 man universities, we require not less than an immediate 

 expenditure of 1,000,000/ sterling in building and appa- 

 ratus, and an annual expenditure of from 500,000/. to 

 800,000/," 



When we add to the Government subsidy the income of 

 the universities from other sources, the sum is enormously 

 increased. The half-million, moreover, does not include the 

 occasional grants of the Government for special purposes. 

 Some idea of the magnificence of these was shown in our 

 recent " University Intelligence," where it was stated that 

 in the budget submitted to the present Prussian House of 

 Deputies are the following items :— Erection of the Ger- 

 man Industrial Museum, 998,000 mk. ; erection of a 

 Polytechnic in Berlin, 8,393,370 mk, ; erection of an 

 Ethnological Museum in Berlin, 1,800,000 mk. ; and for 

 the Berlin University, erection of an Herbarium, 422,000 

 mk. ; of a Clinic, 1,955,000 mk. ; of a new building for a 

 second Chemical Laboratory, as well as of a Technical 

 and Pharmaceutical Institute, 967,000 mk. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Meteorite of July 20, i860.— The occurrence 

 of the splendid meteor of November 23, which has 

 probably been observed with sufficient completeness to 

 allow of the determination of its path, while it remained 

 visible, recalls a similar object which passed over the 

 northern parts of the United States and adjacent parts of 

 Canada, on the evening of July 20, i860, which was made 

 the subject of investigation by the late Prof. J. H. Coffin, 

 of Lafayette College, N.Y. Probably no one of these 

 remarkable bodies has been more extensively observed, 

 and we do not remember any case where the calculations 

 have been more laboriously conducted, and with greater 

 hope of reliable results. 



» i.e. we presume professors strictly so-called, exclusive of " privat 

 docenten." 



