NA TURE 



593 



THURSDAY, APRIL 24, iS 



THE EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY FESTIVAL 



THE brilliant celebration of its three hundredth anni- 

 versary by the University of Edinburgh last week 

 suggests some reflections on the connection between Uni- 

 versity progress and the growth of Science. One of thejmost 

 remarkable features in these festive proceedings has been 

 the preponderance given to the recognition of the claims 

 of scientific research to University distinction. A hundred 

 years ago and less, had such a gathering been thought of, 

 the great men who would have been invited to receive the 

 highest academic honours would have been learned scho- 

 lars, eminent professors of the mediaeval branches of 

 education, with perhaps a few distinguished medical men 

 and doubtless a good many candidates whose only claim 

 would have been the possession of a hereditary title of 

 nobility. But non- a new host of competitors has arisen, 

 and upon them have the laurels of the University been 

 mainly bestoweJ. Physicists, chemists, physiologists, 

 botanists, geologists, and other representatives of modern 

 science have almost elbowed the older philosophies out 

 of the field. In the paean sung at every meeting of the 

 festival the brilliance of scientific discovery, the prowess 

 of scientific discoverers, and the glory shed on the Uni- 

 versity by its connection with both have been the chief 

 themes. 



This great change in the objects of University recog- 

 nition has been silently in progress for several generations. 

 But it has never been so openly and strikingly proclaimed 

 as during these recent meetings at Edinburgh. It is not 

 that any formal alteration has there been made in the 

 curriculum of study. On the contrary, the same subjects 

 are still required for degrees in Arts as were demanded 

 centuries ago. Outside the conservative government of 

 the University there has, however, been a steady growth 

 of modern ideas, modern life, and modern science. To 

 the Medical School, in the first place, must the credit be 

 assigned of fostering this wider culture. Its professors 

 have thrown open their old monopoly of teaching, and 

 work harmoniously with their competitors outside the 

 walls of the University. They have cast aside the ancient 

 inefficient system of mere prelections, and have introduced 

 practical teaching into every branch of their science. To 

 pass from the state of things in the youth of these 

 teachers to what they have now made it is to cross a gulf 

 such as might be thought to mark an interval of some 

 centuries. Everywhere we see practical scientific re- 

 search taking the place of musty lecture-notes and dry 

 unproductive text-books. Not only have the professors 

 aimed at being successful teachers, but many of them 

 have themselves led the way in original dis:overy. They 

 have likewise kept themselves and their students abreast 

 of the progress of research all over the v.orld. Hence the 

 names of Continental men of science have become house- 

 hold words among the rising gencr.^tion. We can readily 

 understand and sympathise with the uncontrollable out- 

 burst of enthusiasm with which the students greeted the 

 actual appearance among them of a Pasteur, a Helmholtz, 

 and a Virchow. 



Vol. XXIX.— No. 756 



Silently and unconsciously perhaps the Universities are 

 passing from the exclusive domination of the older learn- 

 ing. At Edinburgh the emancipation is far advanced, 

 but has yet to take shape in a definite rearrangement of 

 the curriculum of study. No thoughtful scientific man 

 would advocate a merely scientific education. The 

 foundations of every man's culture should be laid broad 

 and deep in those humanising departments of thought 

 which the experience of centuries has proved to be admir- 

 ably fitted for the mental and moral discipline of youth. 

 But the day is not far distant when it will be acknowledged 

 that molern science must be admitted to a place with 

 ancient philosophy and literature in the scheme of a 

 liberal education, when in all our Universities provision 

 will be made for practical instruction in scientific methods, 

 and when at least as much encouragement will be given 

 by fellowships and scholarships to the prosecution of 

 original scientific research as has hitherto been awarded 

 to classical study or learned indolence. 



To those who hopefully look forward to the widening 

 and broadening of University culture the Edinburgh 

 festival is full of encouragement. Such a gathering of 

 representative intellect has probably never before been 

 assembled. Delegates from the oldest and youngest 

 Universities of the world, from scientific societies and 

 other learned bodies, brought their congratulations to 

 their northern sister. But they felicitated her not so 

 much because she had been a successful educational 

 centre for three hundred years, as because she had held 

 up the torch of scientific discovery, because her professors 

 and graduates had widened the boundaries of knowledge 

 and deciphered new pages in the great book of Nature. 

 If such has been the result of the trammelled past with 

 .all its hampering traditions and vested interests, its ob- 

 structions and jealousies, what may we not anticipate for 

 the liberated future ! After the lapse of another century, 

 what new conquests will there not be to chronicle, what 

 new realms of discovery to celebrate ! In this ever- 

 advancing progress, the University of Edinburgh, which 

 has done so much in bygone years, will doubtless more 

 than hold her own. No centre of education and research 

 has greater advantages in its favour. The comparatively 

 small size of the city, the proximity of its lecture-rooms, 

 laboratories and libraries to each other ; its vicinity to the 

 sea on the one hand and to a varied and picturesque 

 country on the other, combine to offer exceptional advan- 

 tages to the student. Not the least of its attractions is 

 its own unchanging beauty, which never ceases to appeal 

 to the eye and to stimulate the imagination. Long may 

 Edinburgh remain a beacon of light in educational ad- 

 vancement, in the cuUivation of scientific methods, and 

 in the march of scientific discovery. 



PRJEVALSKY'S TRAVELS IN CENTRAL ASIA 

 Third Journey hi Central Asia. From Zaisan through 



KJiami to Thibet and the Sources of the Yellow River. 



By N. M. Prjevalsky. Russian. (St. Petersburg, 



18S3.) 



THIS large work is the complete account of the third 

 ' journey of Col. Prjevalsky to Thibet, notices of the 

 progress of which from time to time appeared in our 

 pages during the year 1880. The first journey, it will be 



