158 
NATURE 
[Dec. 9, 1869 
new blood into the teaching staff is one great secret of 
the vitality of the German system ; another, certainly, is 
the well-known principle of “Lern und Lehr-Freiheit.” 
The professor is, on the one hand, perfectly free to treat 
his subject as he thinks best ; and the student has a free 
choice amongst the various teachers of the particular 
department of study to which he may devote himself. 
Can our system, with its far larger pecuniary means, with 
its hundreds of scholarships and non-resident fellowships, 
compare in these respects, as inducing men to devote 
themselves to study, with the German universities ? 
There is no doubt that the secondary school education 
in England is inferior, in breadth and completeness, to the 
strict gymnasial system of Germany. Hence our univer- 
sities are obliged to act more as finishing schools, occupied 
with raising the general level instead of carrying out the 
more scientific, higher, and more original studies which 
form the professional side of education, the “ Fach-studien” 
which constitute the essential elements of the German 
system. 
In even the smallest German university the four faculties 
of Philosophy (or art studies), Law, Medicine,and Theology 
exist in active operation. In the first of these faculties, 
all those students enter who desire to study either Philology 
and the cognate subjects, Historical science, the Mathe- 
matical sciences, or any of the various branches of 
Physical science. 
The Law students confine themselves to their own 
Faculty where the theory of the profession is brought 
before them in a scientific order before they begin to learn 
the practice of the law. 
In Medicine, the danger of a knowledge acquired 
by practice alone, and the necessity of a scientific edu- 
cation, are too patent to have escaped attention even in 
England; and hence the establishment of our numerous 
medical schools, attached to large hospitals. In Ger- 
many, such medical schools unconnected with other 
faculties are unknown; medicine forms an _ essential 
feature of every university system ; and even comparatively 
small towns, as Heidelberg and Wirtzburg, have their 
large and well-regulated hospitals, and are able to draw 
to themselves such men as Helmholtz and Kolliker. 
‘On the advantage of association of medical students 
with those pursuing other studies it is needless to 
enlarge. 
In Theology there are frequently two faculties, one 
based upon Catholic and the other upon Protestant prin- 
ciples ; these are found to work satisfactorily, and in 
Germany all who enter either Church must have at any 
rate gone through a regular course of theological in- 
struction. 
Another grand point in which the German university 
excels the English is the much larger proportion of 
qualified teachers which we find in the former. 
As an example of the enormous teaching power in 
Germany, let us take the Philosophical Faculty in the 
University of Berlin. Here four professors and five other 
lecturers give twenty distinct courses each semestre (half 
year) in the science of Chemistry alone, including several on 
systematic chemistry, the history of chemistry, the chemical 
foundations of geology, metallurgy, pharmacy, &c. Under 
the head of Physics the following ten distinct courses were 
given by seven Professors during the summer semestre of 
1868, and, in addition, a physical laboratory is conducted 
by Prof. Magnus :— 
Hours 
weekly. 
Experimental Physics 4 | Physiological Optics. . 
shechnolopy With) s-) sear : Mechanical Theory of Heat 1 
Acoustics f ‘ 3 ee 
Capillary Theory. : | Physical Geography « Ba es 
Theory of Light and of Optical ineteneier in Methods of 
Instruments . . az Physical and Goceuies 
| Observations . . 3 
Hours 
weekly. 
In the Biological subjects, ten professors and lecturers 
gave twenty-one courses, theoretical and practical. In 
Classics and allied subjects, thirteen professors and eight 
lecturers gave twenty-three courses; and on other lin- 
guistic subjects, eighteen professors and lecturers gave 
forty courses. In Mathematics, six professors and lec- 
turers gave thirteen courses. In what we should call 
Mental and Moral Philosophy, including pedagogy, eleven 
professors and lecturers gave nineteen courses. In Eco- 
nomic and Agricultural sciences, seven professors and 
lecturers gave twelve courses. In History and Geography, 
nine professors and lecturers gave thirteen courses. In 
Belles-lettres and the Fine Arts, seven professors gave ten 
courses. It must be remembered that all the courses 
enumerated above belong to the Faculty of Arts (PAz/o- 
sophische Facultat), and are exclusive of the three other 
faculties, in each of which the subjects are represented in 
a similar proportion, 
It is, of course, impossible for us in England to attempt 
to set up a system on this scale; but we cannot be too 
fully aware of the miserably insufficient way in which 
these studies are represented in our country; and we may 
rest assured that the existence, in due proportions, of a 
plurality of teachers is an indispensable pre-requisite for 
both breadth and depth of study. Where only one 
teacher is charged with one leading branch of study, it is 
barely within his power to provide the systematic teaching 
necessary for pass-men ; whereas if, as in German uni- 
versities, several teachers lecture concurrently on sub- 
divisions of a subject, the more advanced students have 
the opportunity of studying more thoroughly some one 
section of their science. The teachers are also induced, 
by the opportunity of lecturing on special subjects, to 
engage in profounder investigations ; and thus that other 
aim of university institutions—the advancement of science 
and the promotion of a learned class—is furthered. This 
is aconsideration—at least, however, so far as England is 
concerned—for a remote future: it is sufficient to insist 
on the necessity of this plurality of teachers in order to 
ensure really effective teaching. The same subdivision of 
each subject appears in all the German universities. 
Thus in G6ttingen, by no means one of the recently 
founded universities, and not subject in any special de- 
gree to those influences which have so remarkably fostered 
the growth of the sciences of observation and experiment, 
we find the following courses given in 1868 :— 
In Gottingen, Chemistry is (against the usage in Germany) 
attached to the Medical Faculty; there are, however, three 
divisions—the general, the physiological, and the agricultural. 
In the first, we find Professor Wohler, with four skilled assist 
ants ; two of these being also professors. In the physiological 
division is another professor, with one assistant; and in the 
agricultural division, is one professor and one assistant. There 
are, further, four laboratory servants. 
Professor Wohler delivers the principal course of lectures on 
systematic chemistry. His assistants lecture on special branches. 
