ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 257 



Universities, moreover, the legal status of these habili- 

 tated doctors as teachers is exactly the same as that of 

 the ordinary professors. In a few places they are 

 subject to some slight restrictions which, however, 

 have scarcely any practical effect. The senior teachers 

 of the University, especially the ordinary professors, 

 have this amount of favour, that, on the one hand, in 

 those branches in which special apparatus is needed 

 for instruction, they can more freely dispose of the 

 means belonging to the State ; while on the other it 

 falls to them to hold the examinations in the faculty, 

 and, as a matter of fact, often also the State examina- 

 tion. This naturally exerts a certain pressure on the 

 weaker minds among the students. The influence of 

 examinations is, however, often exaggerated. In the 

 frequent migrations of our students, a great number 

 of examinations are held in which the candidates have 

 never attended the lectures of the examiners. 



On no feature of our University arrangements do 

 foreigners express their astonishment so much as about 

 the position of private docents. They are surprised, 

 and even envious, that we have such a number of 

 young men who, without salary, for the most part with 

 insignificant incomes from fees, and with very un- 

 certain prospects for the future, devote themselves to 

 strenuous scientific work. And, judging us from the 

 point of view of basely practical interests, they are 

 H. s 



