66 UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL. 



of others, seems to me to be a more effectual check on 

 these tendencies, than even the love of usefulness or the 

 ambition for fame. 



But supposing the Professorial forces of our Univer- 

 sity to be duly organised, there remains an important 

 question, relating to the teaching power, to be considered. 

 Is the Professorial system the system, I mean, of teach- 

 ing in the lecture-room alone, and leaving the student 

 to find his own way when he is outside the lecture- 

 room adequte to the wants of learners ? In answering 

 this question, I confine myself to my own province, and 

 I venture to reply for Physical Science, assuredly and 

 undoubtedly, No. As I have already intimated, prac- 

 tical work in the Laboratory is absolutely indispensable, 

 and that practical work must be guided and superin- 

 tended by a sufficient staff of Demonstrators, who are 

 for Science what Tutors are for other branches of study. 

 And there must be a good supply of such Demonstra- 

 tors. I doubt if the practical work of more than twen- 

 ty students can be properly superintended by one Dem- 

 onstrator. If we take the working day at six hours, 

 that is less than twenty minutes apiece not a very 

 large allowance of time for helping a dull man, for 

 correcting an inaccurate one, or even for making an 

 intelligent student clearly apprehend what he is about. 

 And, no doubt, the supplying of a proper amount of 

 this tutorial, practical teaching, is a difficulty in the way 

 of giving proper instruction in Physical Science in such 

 Universities as that of Aberdeen, which are devoid of 



