284 



NATURE 



Ijan. 17, I ; 



THE STRASSBURG BOTANICAL 

 INSTITUTE. 

 TN tlie American Botanical Gazette for December 1888 (vol. 

 xiii. No. 12) there is a paper by Mr. William R. Dudley 

 on the Botanical Institute at Strassburg. This paper is valuable 

 and interesting as showing the sort of provision for botanical 

 study that is thought right and necessary in Germany. The 

 Institute forms part of the new University buildings of Strass- 

 burg. Mr. Dudley gives plans of the ground floor and first 

 floor, and from these it appears that a considerable portion of 

 the building is reserved as a residence for the Director and his 

 family, and that two rooms are allotted to the Director's assistant, 

 usually a young man who has recently taken his decree as a 

 doctor. On the ground floor, besides the living-rooms, are a 

 larger and smaller lecture-room, a " Lchrsatnmhing" or illus- 

 trative museum, and a " preparation-room," which is used in 

 the preparation of lectures, and is also found useful by those 

 who wish to carry on work in connection with the museum. 

 On the first floor a large part of the space is given up to 

 laboratories. It includes also' an herbarium, a library, a 

 weighing-room, a chemical-room, a dark room, and a small 

 greenhouse. 



After some introductory statements, Mr. Dudley continues 

 as follows : — 



No doubt the architect who designed this building is account- 

 able for cutting it up into symmetrical squares ; any German 

 architect who failed in this would be sure to die unhappy. 

 Nevertheless, for the sequence of the rooms and for the details, 

 De Bary was responsible, and, taking everything into considera- 

 tion, it is considered in Germany their best single laboratory 

 for botany. 



Its chief characteristics are the abundance of all necessary 

 appliances and apparatus, cleanliness and orderly disposition of 

 all its supplies, good light from huge windows and white wall- 

 surfaces. Wall-cases are numerous, and the contained glass- 

 ware, reagents, &c., nicely arranged. Drawers are abundant — 

 this one containing only reagent tubes, that glass plates, another 

 pipettes, burettes, &c. Running water is convenient, of course, 

 and distilled water and three grades of alcohol where they can 

 be readily obtained by students if necessary. There are several 

 sterilizing boxes in the large laboratories ; also constant-tem- 

 perature boxes provided with thermostats. The chemical-room 

 is provided with a hood for fumes and for the steam generated 

 by the steam sterilizing cylinders. Gas is provided at each 

 table, and a separate room is set apart for delicate instruments, 

 such as balances. Indeed the association and dissociation of 

 rooms and apparatus, the conveniences, the absence of unneces- 

 sary things and showy effects, indicate the intelligence and 

 discernment of a worker and a master. 



The tables are broad, very heavy, and designed so as to 

 prevent warping or seaming. They are convenient for two 

 beginners or a single special student. Each person is provided, 

 at the outset, with about a dozen common reagents and fluids. 

 The microscopes for laboratory use are chiefly Hartnack. Most 

 of the private microscopes in the laboratory at the time I was 

 there were from Seibert, an excellent Wetzlar manufacturer, not 

 well known in America, and one or two trom Zeiss. The 

 stock of reagents in the cases is large, and, if necessary, new 

 ones will be cheerfully ordered. The University requires of 

 special students working every day in the laboratory, a payment 

 of fifteen dollars, which covers all necessary expenses. 



Strassburg University had about 1000 students during the 

 winter semester of 1887-88, and 104 professors, privat-docents, 

 r.nd assistants. It is, therefore, neither one of the largest, nor 

 one of the smallest, of Germany's twenty-one Universities. 



The Botanical Laboratory had six advanced and five beginning 

 students, and I do not think the number was affected by De 

 Bary's illness. To instruct or counsel these were four in- 

 structors : the Professor.; the associate Professor, Dr. Zacharias ; 

 xhe pi'ivat-docent, Dr. Wortman ; and the assistant. Dr. Jost — 

 all contributors, in a greater or less degree, to science, and of 

 course well-trained men. At least three of the advanced stu- 

 dents were working quite independently during De Bary's illness, 

 although it was the latter's custom to inquire nearly every day 

 .ifter the work of the advanced students, wlien he was in health. 

 But the German Government, which employs and pays these 

 instructors, is not afilicted with that particular kind of malaria 

 which enters into the management of almost every American 

 institution, and gives it alternate chills and fever over fall and 



rise in numbers. Numbers are a matter of indifference to it. 

 A very distinguished German Professor once said to me : "The 

 truth is, we teach whatever we please, we do as much or as 

 little as we please, and the Government does not interfere with 

 us.'' Yet these men teach enthusiastically, and accomplish in 

 scientific research ten times as much as the American Professor, 

 who is " personally conducted " by a whole Board of Trustees. 

 The German Government c/c^trj- " personally conduct," however, 

 in certain very important matters. In the first place, it provides 

 a suitable corps of assistants, and makes it sure, therefore, that 

 the Professor has not too great a burden of teaching on his 

 hands. It provides ample appropriations ; it appoints its Pro- 

 fessors for merit, and it sends up its students from the secondary 

 schools with an excellent and uniform training. 



The advanced students were mostly engaged in bacterio- 

 logical investigations, although one was working out certain 

 biological questions of fern development. Prof. Zacharias was 

 engaged in histological work. Dr. Wortman in physiology, and 

 Dr. Jost completed a paper during the winter on the morphology 

 of certain mistletoes. 



In the " Lehrsamvilung" are numerous beautiful preparations, 

 some made by De Bary, and at once recognizable as the originals 

 of well-known figures in his published works ; and some by 

 former pupils, some of whom are now famous men. These 

 preparations are frequently used in illustrating the lectures, all 

 of which were held late in the afternoon or in the evening. 



The herbarium collection is not relatively large, and is situated 

 rather remote from the other rooms. Had De Bary been a 

 systematist, he would, no doubt, have placed his herbarium 

 centrally. Instead, the large laboratories, the rooms which 

 have seen so many distinguished investigators, and witnessed 

 so many scientific discoveries under the guidance of the great 

 Director, are the rooms around which the others are clustered. 



The library, stocked with a fairly good number of the im- 

 portant serials, together with a few standard works in the 

 principal departments of botany, is placed nearer the laboratory ; 

 and in this, every Monday evening, meets the " Botanical 

 Colloquium," made up of the advanced students of the labora- 

 tory and the instructors. Certain members give carefully 

 prepared abstracts and reviews of the current botanical litera- 

 ture, which are followed by spirited discussions. After an hour 

 or more of arduous and profitable labour of this kind, by means 

 of which each member is enabled to keep quite abreast of 

 advanced lines of work, they adjourn to a more convivial place, 

 and spend the remainder of the evening in the relaxation natural 

 to the German. By eleven o'clock all their vast learning, and 

 especially the hard facts of the recent Colloquium, are in a state ^ 

 of saturated solution, and by next morning are quite ready 

 for use. 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 



IV/r AY I ask you to publish and invite criticism on the inclosed 

 ^^^ Bill, which has been read a first time in the Kensington 

 Parliament ? It is put forward as not antagonistic to, but rather 

 as including (see Clause 8), the academic schemes of technical 

 education with which we are familiar. I write as one who was 

 at a primary school, who has worked at the bench, who has 

 great reason to be grateful to the Science and Art Department, 

 who has been a master at a public school, a manager of works, 

 and an employer of labour. John Perry. 



10 Penywern Road, South Kensington, S.W., 

 December 28, 1888. 



A Bill for Technical Industrial Education. 



Whereas it is expedient to make provision for Technical 

 Industrial Education in England and Wales : 



Be it therefore enacted, &c. 



(i) This Bill maybe cited as the Technical Education Bill 

 1889, and shall not extend to Scotland or Ireland. 



(2) '* Apprentice " means any boy of less than 18, or any 

 girl of less than 17 years of age employed, whether undei 

 indentures or not, in any place which, under the Factories or 

 Workshops Acts, is denominated a factory or workshop, or in 

 any warehouse, shop, office, or other place of business, or for 

 wages, or other remuneration, in any place of employment. 

 But apprentice so defined .=hall not include any menial or 



