NATURAL HISTORY AT ST ANDREWS 283 



and the members of the class gave occasional demonstrations 

 of a popular kind on Friday afternoons. 



In 1882 no other mode of storing the large collections in 

 preparation-jars and bottles brought to St Andrews was 

 available than the empty shelves (formerly fitted up for 

 Professor Macdonald's books) in the gallery of the muniment- 

 room. These had to be reached by a ladder, and conveyed 

 up a long flight of stairs to the lecture-room. Next session, 

 however, a series of temporary shelves were prepared in the 

 open space under the lecture-room benches, and many of 

 the jars and bottles were transferred to these. As year after 

 year passed, however, the inconvenience attending the study 

 of these by students became manifest, though they certainly 

 were conveniently situated for lecture purposes. Accordingly, 

 the Invertebrates were by and by placed in four large glass 

 cases erected by the Government in the apartment at the 

 roof of the museum containing the local collections, and both 

 students and the public have now the opportunity of studying 

 them with greater comfort and advantage. 



NATURAL HISTORY IN OTHER UNIVERSITIES 



Before making some general remarks on the Chair of 

 Natural History in St Andrews, it may be useful to glance 

 briefly at the Chairs of Natural History in other universities. 



Thus, the Chair of Natural History in Edinburgh was 

 founded in 1770, but the first Regius Professor, Dr Robert 

 Ramsay, lectured only occasionally, and the museum of which 

 he was the keeper, notwithstanding the efforts of Sir Andrew 

 Balfour and Sir Robert Sibbald, contained few specimens. 

 Dr Ramsay was succeeded in 1779 by Dr John Walker, who 

 followed in his lectures the method then in vogue discoursing 

 on meteorology, hydrography, geology, mineralogy, botany, 

 and zoology. He found it compatible with his duties in the 

 University to carry on at the same time the ministry of Moffat, 



