2 NATURE 
[May 4, 1871 

the latter a signed schedule,—the advantage of the 
professor and not the advancement of the student being 
the point considered. During the last few years a reaction 
has been setting in against this perpetual lecturing, and 
the number required to be attended has been considerably 
reduced. The University of London deserves the credit 
of having been the first to break through this absurd sys- 
tem, by requiring attendance on only one or two courses, 
and this rather as evidence of the student being really 
engaged in the study of medicine than for any other pur- 
pose, leaving him free to acquire his information as best 
he can, but testing its extent and value by a searching 
examination. 
No doubt many of the posts above alluded to are filled 
by men of great talent and ability, but their powers are 
crippled by the small means at their disposal, which pre- 
vents many illustrations or experiments from being exhi- 
bited which are almost essential for thorough teaching. 
As a means of improving the system of education 
by supplying a better class of lectures on some subjects 
than those at present given, and at the same time ob- 
taining better remuneration for the lecturers them- 
selves, a scheme has recently been advanced by which 
it is proposed that certain medical schools in the me- 
tropolis should be amalgamated, a reduction in the 
number of lecturers being thus effected, whilst the 
pecuniary value of those that remain will undergo 
considerable augmentation. It is hoped that the value of 
these posts would then be sufficient to lead to their being 
accepted not by those who only use them as a stepping- 
stone for advancement, but by gentlemen who have devoted 
themselves exclusively to the study of the department of 
science on which they lecture. 
At the present moment the lectureships in several of 
the smaller schools yield such small returns to their holders 
as would astonish many of their hearers. As a matter of 
fact we could mention an instance where the proceeds of 
an entire summer course of lectures has amounted on the 
average for the past three years to a sum not exceeding 
6/7. Can this for a moment be regarded as in any way 
proportionate to the intellectual labour, the time, and the 
money expended in their preparation, illustration, and 
delivery ? It might be considered to be a moderate recom- 
pense for one lecture, but as payment for a course it is 
simply monstrous. Is it surprising that the lectures are 
often given without animation, and listened to without 
interest ? 
By amalgamating several schools, however, such chairs 
might, it is hoped, be so far increased in value as not 
only to lead men of high ability, and distinguished for 
their knowledge in particular branches of science, to 
accept them, but to provide ample funds to admit of their 
copious illustration, and for the purchase of expensive 
apparatus — apparatus which the smaller schools now 
find it difficult or impossible to procure. It would not 
be difficult, we imagine, to find room for those who at 
present hold appointments as demonstrators, with lighter 
but not less important duties than they have hitherto per- 
f ormed. At all events it seems to us that the amalgama- 
tion scheme, if fairly carried out, would prove the most 
splendid example of the Conservation of Force with which 
we are acquainted, and on that ground alone should re- 
ceive the cordial support of the medical teachers through- 


out the metropolis. In a future article we shall suggest 
what appears to us a desirable and practical scheme for 
medical education. 

THE LITERATURE OF CHEMISTRY 
Te appearance of the April number of the “Journal 
of the Chemical Society ” marks the commencement 
of a new era in English Chemical Literature, containing, 
as it does, besides the papers which have been read before 
the Society, the first instalment of the promised “abstracts.” 
The papers selected for this purpose by the accomplished 
editor are ninety-one in number, comprising every branch 
of Chemical Science, Technology included, and are clas- 
sified under six various headings, as ‘‘ Physical Chemistry,” 
“Inorganic Chemistry,” &c. The abstracts themselves, 
made by the gentlemen whose names appear on the 
wrapper of the journal, are naturally of different degrees 
of literary merit, but seem to be carefully and conscien- 
tiously done ; all the points of essential importance in the 
original papers being retained. The reader will thus not 
only have a good general notion of the extent of the re- 
searches made by any particular author, but also be able 
to repeat any of the experiments, or prepare any of the 
substances from the directions given. These abstracts are 
therefore really what they proféss to be, and not merely 
notices of a few lines in length, from which but little more 
information can be gleaned than from the title of the 
paper. 
The Council of the Chemical Society is to be con- 
gratulated on the energetic way in which it has en- 
deavoured to supply a great defect in our scientific 
literature, by affording us the means of obtaining a 
general view of the progress of Chemistry both here and 
on the Continent. Chemists have hitherto had to depend 
chiefly on Will’s “ Jahresbericht,” which, although useful 
in its way, has the double disadvantage incident upon its 
method of arrangement, first, in not being published 
until long after the end of the year, and, secondly, of 
being rather a véswmé of the chemical work done, than a 
condensed account of particular researches. There is 
no doubt that these abstracts, if furnished with a full 
and comprehensive index, both of the subject-matter and 
the names of the authors, will become a standard work 
of reference, not only here but on the Continent. 
It is to be hoped that other Scientific Societies will be 
induced to follow the example of the Chemical Society, 
and, by publishing abstracts of all papers connected with 
their particular branch of science, give an impetus to its 
cultivation, and render a knowledge of its general pro- 
gress easily attainable. The value of such abstracts is 
greater than might at first sight appear ; for the study of 
Science, both for its own sake, and in its application to 
the Arts, is extending so rapidly that it requires a 
considerable expenditure of time to acquire a knowledge 
of the numerous researches and discoveries which are 
now being made in any particular science, and leaves but 
little for the study of the sciences allied to it. If, then, 
each of the learned societies were to publish abstracts 
similar to those of the Chemical Society, it would render 
it comparatively easy for the workers in any one depart- 
ment of science to acquire something more than a super- 
ficial knowledge of the discoveries made in the others. 
