NATURAL HISTORY AT ST ANDREWS 295 



museum, one of the main objects of the society was to found 

 a museum in connection with the University, and Sir David 

 lost no opportunity of using his influence at home and abroad 

 to carry out this purpose. 



Under this distinguished Principal the Science Chairs in 

 the University were Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Civil 

 History (including Natural History), Medicine and Anatomy, 

 and Chemistry. 



The Chair of Mathematics was occupied by Professor 

 Thomas Duncan, a native of Fife, the friend of Dr Chalmers, 

 and the author of a text-book entitled Elements of Plane 

 Geometry. Professor Duncan was an enthusiastic and capable 

 teacher, but at this period advanced age and ill-health com- 

 pelled him in 1854 to find an assistant professor in Dr Lees of 

 the School of Arts in Edinburgh, who had many difficulties 

 to encounter in the teaching of the three mathematical classes. 



Professor Fischer, an able graduate of Cambridge, held 

 the Chair of Natural Philosophy. His abilities were great, 

 though he only published a small work on logarithms, and one 

 paper on a ' Problem in Plane Optics ' in the Cambridge 

 Mathematical Journal, and his prelections were eagerly 

 followed by the hard-working students. Though a German 

 by birth, he spoke English with considerable fluency. His 

 strong point was mathematics, and some years after the 

 period mentioned (1853-57) he was transferred to the Chair 

 of Mathematics in the University. No practical class in 

 connection with natural philosophy was then in existence, 

 but Professor Fischer demonstrated privately to earnest 

 students the working of many interesting philosophical 

 instruments and showed various microscopic preparations. 



The occupant of the Chair of Civil History (really Natural 

 History) was Professor Macdonald. At the period mentioned 

 the lectures were more or less intermittent and attended by 

 few students, and occasionally some of these were amateurs. 

 The lectures embraced mineralogy, geology, and palaeontology, 



