JuLy 13, 1899] 
NATURE 
255 
to the progress of zoological knowledge, Sir William 
Flower found time to extend very largely among the 
educated classes an interest in the aims and results of 
zoology by the willing courtesy with which he received 
visitors at the Museum in Cromwell Road, and explained 
its contents. His interest in his work there was so sin- 
cere that no zoologist ever asked in vain for his help and 
advice in museum matters. He was so earnest in carry- 
ing out his new devices for the effective exhibition to the 
public of zoological specimens that even on his busiest 
days he would find a few minutes to show his latest im- 
provements to one who sympathised with his aims and 
believed in his methods. 
Personally, I owe very much to him in this way. Iam 
glad also to be able to acknowledge here the help which 
he gave to me by supporting in a valuable letter, which 
was printed and circulated at the time, the re-arrange- 
ment of the zoological and anatomical collections in the 
University Museum at Oxford, which I had proposed and 
was enabled: subsequently to carry out—largely in conse- 
quence of the weighty opinion which Sir William Flower 
gave in its favour. E. Ray LANKESTER. 
THE DUTIES OF PROVINCIAL PROFESSORS 
oe NG the past twenty years numerous centres of 
university education have grown up all over our 
country, and much public money has been spent in their 
endowment. Some of these colleges have already risen 
to the rank of universities with the power of conferring 
degrees ; others ate eagerly pressing forward in the same 
direction in the hope of competing with their more 
fortunate rivals. If this multiplication of universities is 
not to result in lowering the prestige of British uni- 
versity degrees, but to enable us to compete in the 
matter of scientific education with foreign countries, it is 
of the utmost importance that the professorial staffs of 
our younger university colleges should be placed under 
the most favourable positions for establishing the re- 
putations both of themselves and of their colleges in the 
matter of higher study and research. The time appears 
to have come when we must face much more boldly than 
hitherto the question whether the conditions attaching 
to provincial professorships and lectureships, even in 
some of our most successful university colleges, are 
conducive or inimical to progress in such respects. 
In calling attention to the serious and, to our mind, 
unnecessary disadvantages under which provincial pro- 
fessors are often placed at the hands of their Councils or 
Governing Boards, our remarks must be understood to 
be based on a considerable number of experiences of 
which we have gathered details during some years. 
A foreign professor may only lecture five hours a week, 
and devote the rest of his time to research, and yet be re- 
garded as discharging his duties fully and efficiently. 
Under such a system German professors have filled their 
class-rooms with the best students drawn from all parts 
of the world, German degrees are rising in public esti- 
mation year by year, English students are going out of 
their own country for the higher training they cannot 
obtain at home, and we are mainly indebted to Germany 
for our standard literature on every branch of science. 
In America university development is more recent, 
but the majority of universities are lavishly staffed with 
professors and assistant lecturers, who thus have ample 
time for research ; and the system has been introduced of 
giving these teachers one free year in seven, in order that 
they may be able the better to keep themselves abreast 
with the most recent developments of their science. 
Under such conditions, America is rapidly pressing for- 
ward in scientific research, and American text-books are 
slowly and surely finding their way into English class- 
rooms. 
NO. 1550, VOL. 60] 
.In facilities for cheaply acquiring pass degrees. 
As instances of what one university can do in pro 
moting research, even in a single department of science, 
we need only call attention to the Communications 
from the Physical Laboratory of the University of 
Leiden, published periodically in English, or the 
Physical Review, brought out under the auspices of 
Cornell University. 
Our modern centres of university education are largely 
bound down to the policy of attracting the greatest number 
‘of students, not by the reputations of their professors, but 
by the attractions they offer in small bursaries and 
Under 
this system a professor may give fifteen lectures a week 
or more, and spend most of the rest of the day in the 
laboratory ; but there is no limit to the extraneous work 
required of him by his Council or Governing Board, 
beyond that research work forms no part whatever of 
his obligations. We do not deny that good work is done 
in this country by many provincial professors, but it is 
often done under extreme difficulties, and many others 
are debarred from taking that place in the scientific world 
for which their abilities qualify them. 
With regard to the lectures themselves, these are almost 
, exclusively limited by the syllabus of examinations for 
pass degrees. Matriculation preparation forms a heavy 
item in the work of most departments, and one to which 
great importance is commonly attached. It is the duty 
of the professor not so much to push forward his best 
students as to adapt his lectures to the requirements ot 
the average student, and to bring as many as possible 
up to pass standard. He is held responsible for the 
attendance and diligence of his students in class, and 
is bound to make records of these matters ; while out ot 
class he and his colleagues are jointly responsible for 
general discipline, even extending to the rules of athletic 
clubs. He is required to set and correct exercises and 
examination papers at frequent intervals. If students 
have not followed his lectures properly he is expected, 
often at short notice, to provide tutorial instruction 
without limit to those whose chances of passing are in 
danger—an arrangement, by the way, hardly calculated 
to ensure students giving their best attention to pro- 
fessorial lectures. 
We do not imagine that any professor, if left to him- 
self, would be wanting in willingness to give a large 
amount of his private time to helping students over 
difficulties, and making his lectures convey the greatest 
amount of instruction with the least amount of work. 
But if a professor makes a conscientious stand against 
cramming, or puts any personality into his profes- 
sorial work, he runs the serious risk of losing at a 
few weeks’ notice the post he has held foryears, at the 
hands of a Governing Board who misinterpret his action 
because they have no knowledge of the conditions attach- 
ing toa sound teaching of his subject. In such cases 
students, who are more concerned about getting a degree 
than about the thoroughness of their training, may be 
called on to give evidence against their professor. 
We have knowledge of several instances in which 
colleges have on insufficient grounds lost the services of 
men who have been doing good work for them, whose 
teaching has been acknowledged to be successful, and 
who, under less disadvantageous conditions, would have 
done them credit by their scientific work. 
The practical result of this system is that our modern 
university centres, whether chartered or not, are devoting 
their endowments to competing for cheap passdegrees with 
one another, and with private institutions and tutors who 
prepare for London University and similar examinations. 
The students spend the whole day in class-rooms and in 
laboratories, and when they have done the exercise work 
required by their teachers, the day is gone and they are 
too tired to ¢himk over what they have learnt. Their 
professors are thus required to do the thinking for them. 
