122 



NA TURE 



{Dec. 1 8, 1873 



The commissioners for visiting the Universities of Scotland, 

 remark in their report " that it is desirable that graduates m 

 medicine should have that degree of literary and scientific attain- 

 ment which will prevent them when mingling as they must do with 

 mankind, in the exercise of their profession, from being looked 

 upon witii contempt ; or from committing errors in conversation 

 and in writing, for which others would be despised ; because 

 even upon the supposition that they have high professional ac- 

 quisitions, the law of association will operate, and the conclu- 

 sion will be drawn that much confidence cannot be placed in 

 them." The value of university training was strongly insisted on 

 by the late Prof. Edward Forbes, when speaking of the relation 

 which scientific studies bear to medicine. The following are his 

 remarks :— " It is the training of the mind in correct methods of 

 observation that gives the Natural History Sciences so much 

 value as instruments for preparation in professional education. 

 Not unfrequently do we hear the short-sighted and narrow- 

 minded ask— what is the use of zoology or botany or geology to 

 the physician and surgeon ? what have they to do witli beasts or 

 plants or stones ? Is not their work among men healing the 

 sick? Of what use save as remedies, are the creeping things, or 

 the "rass that grows upon the earth, or the minerals in the rock ? 

 Vain and stupid questions all— yet they are sometimes put by 

 persons who profess to promote the spread of education. They 

 want something, but the best of them mistake the end for the 

 means. The best want knowledge, but have not learnt that 

 the mind must be trained ere it is prepared to gather and digest 

 knowledge. They want science, but science turns mouldy and 

 unwholesome in our unprepared mind. They forget or do not 

 know that education consists chielly in training, not in informing. 

 " We must counteract the natural tendency of purely profes- 

 sional studies— the tendency to limit the range of mental 

 vision. We can do this most beneficially through the collateral 

 sciences, which are sufficiently different to give them a wider 

 sphere of action. It is from this point of view that we should 

 regard the natural history sciences as branches of medical educa- 

 tion. For my part," continues Forbes, "after much inter- 

 course with medical men who had studied at many seats of 

 professional education, some collegiate, some exclusively profes- 

 sional, I have no hesitation in saying that, as n rule, the former 

 had the intellectual advantage. There are noble and notable 

 exceptions old and young, but the rule is true in the main. The 

 man who has studied at a seat of learning, university or col- 

 lege, has a wider range of sympathies, a more philosophical 

 tone of mind and a higher estimate of the objects of intellectual 

 ambition, than his fellow-practitioner who, Irom his youth up- 

 wards, has concentr ated his thoughts upon the contractedly pro- 

 fessional subjects of an hospital school. I will not believe that 

 the practitioner of medicine, any more than the clergyman, or 

 the lawyer, or the soldier or merchant, is wiser, or better 

 able to treat the offices of his calling, because his mind takes 

 no note of subjects beyond the range of his professional 

 pursuit. It is a great pleasure, both to patient and neighbour- 

 hood, to find in our doctor an enlightened friend, one who, whilst 

 he does his duty ably and kindly, has a sympathy and an 

 acquaintance with science, literature, and art." 



In Scotland a university is not merely a board authorised to exa- 

 mine students and grant degrees,it is an educational institution, in- 

 tended to exercise a surveillance over the studies of youth, to train 

 their minds for the proper acquisition of knowledge, and to direct 

 their energies in such a way as to insure ihit mental culture 

 which will fit them for all the duties of life. We speak of our 

 University in Scotland as our Alma Maltr because she acts the 

 part of a mother to her alitiiiiii, educating them and superintend- 

 ing their progress in liberal studies. 



It appears to me that a great injury would be inflicted on the 

 character of our medical degrees if the required curriculum did 

 not embrace the natural sciences To study these properly some- 

 thing more than books is required. There must be practical 

 training under an able teacher, examination of living objects both 

 with the naked eye and with the microscope, and a certified 

 course of study. I am sure that everyone, in Scotland at all 

 events, who desires to make graduation in medicine a University 

 honour will aid in keeping up a scientific curriculum under quali- 

 fied teachers. 



Edinburgh University John II. Balfour 



Ancient Egyptian Balances 



I HAVE to thank Mr. Uodwell for calling my attention, in 



Nature, vol. ix. p. 8, to the curious representation of an 



equal-armed Egyptian balance in a papyrus, now in the British 

 Museum. This papyrus, which is perhaps the most beautiful in 

 the whole collection, all the colours and lines being as bright 

 and distinct as when originally painted, has been shown to me by 

 Dr. Birch, wlio also informed me where I could procure a photo- 

 graph of it, being one of a series of photographs from the collec- 

 tion at the British Museum, taken by S. Thonipson, and pub- 

 lished by Mansell and Co., 2, Percy Street. By Mr. Mansell's 

 permission the following drawing has been made. 



mfifff"*^*^''^'''^ -*"'"•■ »■-■■"" 



From an ancient Eg>'pti.in papyrus in the British Museum, of Hennefer, 

 superintendent of the cattle of Seti ]., loth Dynasty, af)out 1350 Be., 

 representing the " Ritual of the de.td." The heart of the deceased is 

 being weighed in an equal-armed balance, and found lighter than a 

 feather. In the papyrus, the weighing is being made in the Hall of 

 perfect Justice, in presence of Osyris. 



It may be seen that what Mr. Rodwell mentions as a sliding 

 weight on one side of the beam, appears rather to be a loop or 

 ribbon for limiting the oscillation of the beam. In the original 

 papyrus the middle and both ends of the beam, as well as the 

 lower part of the column, arc coloured to represent polished 

 brass, whilst the other parts of the balance are dark, as if of 

 bronze. It should be observed that the balance beam has box- 

 ends for suspending the pans. Judging from the height of the 

 human figures, the length of the balance beam represented is 

 about six feet, and the height of the column of the balance is 

 nearly the same. Several similar, though rougher, representa- 

 tions of weighing the heart of the deceased may be seen in the 

 papyrus drawing on the staircase leading from the Egyptian 

 sculpture room to the upper Egyptian room in the British Mu- 

 seum. II. W. ClItSHOLM 



Stalagmitic Deposits 

 In a former number of N.\TrRE (vol. viii. p. 462), Mr. A. R. 

 Wallace, in reviewing Sir Charles Lyell's last edition of the 

 " Antiquity of Man," makes use of the rate of deposits of stalag- 

 miie as data for ascertaining the age of animal remains which 

 arefound buried in caves. It is evident that the variations of 

 rate will render unreliable data for at riving at correct conclusions ; 

 still, calculations based thereon may be of service. 



Some thirty years ago I procured a piece of lime deposit from 

 a lead mine at Boltsburn, in the county of Durham ; it measured 

 about 1 8 in. in length, loin, in breadth, and fully Jin. thick; 

 it was compact and crystalline, and showed distinct facets of 

 crystals on its surface, over which the water was running. I 

 had indisputable evidence that the deposit had taken place in 

 fifteen years. The water, from which it was produced, issued 

 from an adit driven in the Little limestone, which is about 9 ft. 

 thick. After leaving the adit, the water ran down the perpen- 

 dicular side of a rise, for some fathoms, on to some rock liJliris, 

 which was lying on the bottom of a hopper, whence it proceeded 



I from the upper part of the hopper mouth, then perpendicularly 

 down over two iiarrowish wood deals, which were set on edge, 

 and put across the mouth of the hopper to retain the worked 

 materials. It was from off tliese deals that I obtained the speci- 



I men above described . On its back side the forms of the deals 



