August 9, 1894] 



NA TURE 



359 



hand. Indeed, this feeling appears to have gone so far that all 

 the general questions of the science excite with us scarcely any 

 Interest whatever. But a more forward and hopeful spirit 

 appears to have prevailed for some time in other countries, 

 especially Sweden, Germany, and more recently France." Those 

 are the words of despair. I may add that in the same year he 

 r;signed his professorship of Mineralogy, and directed his vast 

 energy to the advancement of other subjects. 

 1 Now, I think, that a country like our own, which aims at 

 taking and maintaining a high place in the scale of civilisation, 

 jught in some way or other to secure that in every important 

 iranch of learning there is a group of men in the country who 

 will make it the main purpose of their lives to render them- 

 selves familiar with all that has been and is being discovered in 

 'the subject, will do whatever is possible to fill up the gaps in 

 the science, and, last but not least, will make the more impor- 

 jtant results accessible to other workers for whom so complete 

 and original a survey is impracticable. 



I No one will doubt that Mineralogy should bp such an impor- 

 tant branch of learning. Minerals existed be ore man was 

 (thrust upon the scene ; they will possibly continae to exist long 

 i after he himself has passed away ; at least as persistent as him- 

 self, they will have an interest for every age. 

 ! The continental nations have not only long recognised the 

 jimportance of mineralogical study, but have acted accordingly. 

 (The diflerence between action and inaction will be most clearly 

 grasped if we compare the position of Mineralogy in Germany 

 I with that in this country. 



j In Freiberg, the centre of a mining district in Saxony, an 

 jinstitute was opened in the year 1766 for the scientific training 

 |of those students whose interest was in minerals, and the 

 lectures on Mineralogy given there by Prof. Werner became 

 a prominent feature ; of the many pupils of this remarkable man. 

 Von Buch Breithaupt, Haidinger, Humboldt, Mohs, Naumann, 

 and Weiss may be especially mentioned as having afterwards 

 distinguished themselves by their scientific work. Of other 

 'Germans, who have likewise gone to their rest after much 

 llabour given to the advancement of Mineralogy and Crystal- 

 lography, we may especially recall Beer, Bischof, Blum, 

 Credner, Ilessel, Ivlaprolh, Ivobell, Lasaulx, Mitscherlich, 

 Neumann, Pfaff, Plattner, Pliicker, Quenstedt, Vom Rath, 

 Keusch, Gustav Rose, lleinrich Rose, .Sadebeck, Scheerer, 

 Sartorius von Waltershausen, Websky, and W.jhier. Of the 

 many Germans who are now contributing to our knowledge of 

 minerals it is an invidious task to make a selection, but we may 

 [mention .\rzruni, Bauer, Beckenkamp, Bucking, Cathrein, 

 Cohen, Goldschmidt, Grolh, Ilau^hofer, Hinlze, Hirschwald, 

 Klein, Klockmann, Knop, Las; eyres, Lehmann, Liebisch, 

 Ludecke, Miigge, Osann, Rosenbusch, Sandberger, Slreng, 

 iVoigt, Weisboch, and Zirkel : most of them are University 

 Professors of Mineralogy ; all of them hold important positions 

 as teachers of the subject. Further, the laboratories and instru- 

 ments available for the teaching of practical work are in many 

 cases, notably at Strassburg, Munich, Gottingen, and Berlin, of 

 |an elaborate character. 



I So much for Germany ; let us now look at home. In the 

 Universities of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland there is 

 ia grand total of — two Proftssorships of Mineralogy, one of them 

 jat Cambridge, the other, and younger one, at Oxford. Further, 

 ithe stipends are nearly as low as they can be made; in the 

 iformer case, according to the University Calendar, the stipend 

 Ipaid from the University Chest to the present holder of the 

 'office amounts to 300/. a year ; in the more ancient but less ex- 

 travagant University of Oxford, the Calendar slates that the 

 jpresent professor receives, sultject to previous deduction of 

 income-tax, the annual sum of 100/., and the necessary instru- 

 iments and many of the specimens have presumably been pro- 

 vided from his private resources ; in case of residence he is to 

 [be allowed another 150/. a year for the luxuries which Univer- 

 sity life involves. And these are the only teaching appointments 

 in his own subject that a successful investigator of minerals can 

 jlook forward to being a candidate for ! The result is that all 

 those students who intend to earn their own living, all those 

 |who feel anxious to undertake professorial work, conclude that, 

 however much they may be interested in the investigation of 

 the characters of minerals, they will do well to follow the 

 example of Prof. Whewell and turn to other branches of 

 science in which there is a more hopeful prospect of their studies 

 meeting with practical recognition. 



It cannot be expected that advanced Mineralogy will ever be 



NO. 1293, VOL. 50] 



able to command the attention of more than a limited number 

 of students, seeing that ils successful pursuit requires a pre- 

 liminary knowledge of at least three other sciences — mathe- 

 matics, physics, and chemistry — sciences which must be 

 assigned a fundamental importance in any scheme of edu- 

 cation ; if geology can be added, so much the better. Only 

 few students can find time in their undergraduate d.iys to 

 acquire a competent knowledge of the preliminary sciences 

 and to proceed afterwards to the study of Mineralogy. But the 

 comparatively flourishing condition of the science in Germany, 

 France, and other countries indicates that this is not a sufficient 

 reason for refraining from givingproper facilities and encourage- 

 ment to those who wish to enter upon its study. Some years 

 ago the University of Cambridge took a step in the right 

 direction, and introduced Mineralogy into their examinational 

 system in such a way that the students of Physics, Chemistry, 

 and Geology could give time to the acquisition of a know- 

 ledge of Crystallography and iMineralogy, and obtain credit for 

 that knowledge in the examination for a degree. 



It is clear that if in the future there is to be an honourable 

 rivalry between this and other countries in the advancement of 

 the knowledge of minerals, each of our 'Universities should be 

 enabled in some way or other to found Professorships of 

 Mineralogy, and be prevailed upon to follow the example of 

 Cambridge in encouraging the students of Physics, Chemistry, 

 and Geology to acquire a knowledge of Crystallography and 

 Mineralogy before their education is regarded as complete. 

 Even where a student has no intention of devoting himself to 

 advanced mineralogical study, an elementary knowledge of 

 Crystallography and Mineralogy will be extremely useful in 

 giving him a better grasp of his own special subject. 



And if, perchance, any of you are anxious to reduce the 

 amount of those unmentionable duties of which we have heard 

 so much of late, and feel that you can best do this by the en- 

 dowment of Professorships of Mineralogy in our Universities, I 

 would advise you not io do what has been so long practicable 

 at this Association, couple Mineralogy with any other science — 

 that would be an unwise economy. Each of the sciences is 

 now so vast in ils extent that no professor can be thoroughly 

 master of what has been done, and is now being done, by other 

 workers, in more than one of them. I remember that in my 

 younger days it was held by some at Oxford that the Professor 

 of Mineralogy, a so-called subordinate subject, should continue 

 to be paid on a lower scale than his brother professors, and 

 that he should obtain a living wage by adding a college tutor- 

 ship or a lectureship in some other subject to his prolessorial 

 duties. It is not by the prospect of such appointments that you 

 can expect the most capable men to be attracted to the study of 

 minerals. The practical effect of such an arrangement would 

 only be that a college lecturer would give formal teaching in 

 Mineralogy while devoting his real energy to another subject in 

 which the pupils are more numerous. 



It only remains to thank you for the way in which you have 

 listened to a technical address relative to a science for the study 

 of which very few facilities have been offered to you in our own 

 country. Not often does the mineralogist present himself before 

 an audience ; he sees only too clearly that 



The .-ipplause of listening sen.ites to command, 

 To re.id his history in a nation's eyes. 

 His lot forbids ; 



but I shall not have broken the long silence in vain if I have 

 made clear to you that, though the Science of Mineralogy is it- 

 self making great progress, we have hitherto given too little 

 encouragement to its study in our own Universities, and lag far 

 behind both Germany and France in the recognition of its 

 importance. 



NOTES. 



We notice with much regret that Dr. C. R. Alder Wright 

 died on July 25, at the early age of fottynioe. He was elected 

 a Fellow of the Royal Society in 18S1. 



Dr. .M. Fii.iioi, has been appointed to the chair of Compara- 

 tive Anatomy in the Paris Museum d'llistoire Naturelle, in 

 succession to the late Prof. Pouchet. 



According to a telegram from Prjevalsk (formerly Karakol), 

 a monument to the Russian traveller Prjevalsky has been 



