NATURE 
451 
THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 1870 
NATURAL SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY 
OF CAMBRIDGE 
N endeavouring to give a brief sketch of the aids and 
encouragements to the student of Natural Science in 
this University, it will simplify matters to arrange our 
materials under three heads: (1) Instruction, (2) Appli- 
ances, (3) Inducements. 
(1) INSTRUCTION.—This may be subdivided into (a) 
University, (2) Collegiate. As the relation between the 
University and the Colleges is often not understood by 
outsiders, it may be well to preface this part of our 
subject by a word of explanation. As it would clearly be 
impossible in most branches of learning for one, or even 
several, professors to teach the large number of students 
now resident in the University, the greater part of the 
work has to be done by the staff of tutors and lecturers 
in the various Colleges. Hence, in practice, a system of 
division of labour has grown up. The Colleges look 
after the general education of their students, and do the 
heavy work, undertaking almost the whole instruction of 
the rank and file in the Arts and Sciences; while the 
professor is held to be the representative of his particular 
department, whose duty is to do his best to advance its 
study, and be the organ by which the latest advances in 
it are communicated to the University at large. His 
work, therefore, is to fine-polish the tools which the 
Colleges have prepared. Hence, in one of the more fre- 
quented branches of study,—say, for example, that of 
mathematics,—the great mass of students never attend 
a professor's lecture at all ; for them the instruction pro- 
vided by the Colleges amply suffices ; his class therefore 
consists of only a few of the ablest students, and he con- 
fines his instructions to those very difficult branches of 
mathematics on which perhaps few men besides him- 
self can speak with much authority. In the case, however, 
of a branch of study followed by only a small number— 
say Sanscrit—the care of all the students may fall on the 
professor ; but then, as the class cannot be a large one, 
this is not too heavy a burden. When, therefore, the 
demand for instruction in any such branch increases, the 
Colleges, either singly in the larger or by combination in 
the smaller Colleges, appoint lecturers to relieve the pro- 
fessor by taking charge of the average students, and by 
preparing the more able to attend his classes. This last 
is exactly the position of the Natural Sciences at the 
present time. 
(a) To return, then, after this digression to the Univer- 
sity Instruction in the Natural Sciences. At the present 
time, without reckoning the two purely Medical Profes- 
sors, there are six Professorships in the University: that of 
Founded in At present held by 
Anatomy* . . 1707 . . . Dr. Humphry. 
Botany sap ty240e 2 romG. (Cy Babington: 
Ghemistry 5. 1 7,O2maen . anor lives: 
Geology. . . 1727 . . . Prof. Sedgwick. 
Mineralogy. . 1808 . . , Prof. W. H. Miller. 
ZOOLORY; 9 0) LOGON es Prof. A. Newton. 
The number of lectures given varies considerably, de- 
pending mainly on the requirements of the students ; 
* The University also provides a demonstrator in Anatomy to assist the 
professor. 
the smallest being one course of four days a week in one 
term, while the largest is two courses each of three days 
a week in every term. 
(6) Collegiate. Trinity College has one lecturer in the 
Natural Sciences ; St. John’s College has two; and the 
present lecturers have made arrangements by which the 
lectures are common to the two Colleges: the subjects 
thus covered being Physics, Chemistry, Geology, and 
Elementary Botany. Sidney Sussex College has one lec- 
turer in the Natural Sciences, and Downing two “in 
Medicine and Natural Science.” We believe that these 
lecturers also admit to their lectures students from the 
neighbouring Colleges. 
(2) APPLIANCES.—The University possesses various 
collections, &c., accessible to students. These are: the 
Museum of Human Anatomy and Pathology, which. is 
strong in the latter department, but not so well supplied 
in the former. The Botanical Museum, containing the 
collections formed by the late Professor Henslow with the 
herbaria of Drs. Lehmann and Lindley, and considerable 
additions that have been made from time to time. These 
for many years could not be properly exhibited owing to 
want of space, but they have been recently established in 
a suite of rooms in the New Museums and Lecture Rooms 
Buildings, and provided with convenient cases in which they 
are being rapidly arranged. There is also a large Botanic 
Garden, with hothouses, &c. The Professor of Chemis- 
try has a small Museum of Chemical Preparations, with 
Laboratories that will accommodate about forty students 
at once. The Geological Museum, which occupies the 
ground-floor rooms under a part of the Public Library, 
had for its nucleus the collection of Dr. Woodward, the 
first professor. Since then it has been constantly aug- 
mented by many valuable gifts, and by the energy and 
liberality of the present occupant of the chair, the vene- 
rable Professor Sedgwick. It is peculiarly rich in Palzo- 
zoic, Cretaceous, and Eocene fossils ; containing, among 
others, collections from the Cretaceous rocks by Mr. Image 
and by Dr. Forbes Young, of Saurians from the Lias by 
Mr. Hawkins, of Dudley fossils by Captain Fletcher. 
There is, we believe, no Museum where the paleontology 
of East England can be better studied. It also contains 
some good sets of Continental fossils, and a remarkably 
fine series of rock specimens collected by the present 
professor. On the whole it is a collection of which the 
University may justly be proud. The Mineralogical 
Museum now occupies a suite of rooms above that of 
Botany, and its arrangement is almost completed. It 
originated in the collection formed by Dr. E. D. Clarke ; 
but has since been greatly augmented, having received 
the entire collections of Mr. H. Warburton, Dr. Forbes 
Young, Lord Lilford, Viscount Alford, and Mr. H. J. 
Brooke, besides large donations from Dr. Whewell and 
others. Rooms for purposes of study are attached to the 
Museum. The Museum of Comparative Anatomy con- 
tains the nucleus of a fine collection in Comparative 
Osteology, numbering more than 2,000 specimens, with 
a collection of Invertebrata and a Physiological series. 
It owes much to the energy and liberality of the late 
Professor of Anatomy, Dr. Clark, and of his son, Mr. J. 
W. Clark, the present superintendent of this and the 
Zoological Museum. The latter Museum, now in process 
of arrangement, contains some good collections of birds 
