Sept. 10, 1885] 
displayed by the students. The assistance provided is also too 
often inadequate, and much which should be done by assistants 
is therefore thrown upon the principals. Higher work under 
these conditions is practically out of the question, not so much 
because it is impossible to snatch at intervals a few hours per 
week, but because the attention is so much taken up in the pre- 
paration of lectures and laboratory and tutorial teaching that it 
is impossible to secure that freedom of mind and concentrated 
attention which are essential to the successful prosecution of re- 
search. Bad, however, as is often the position of the principals, 
that of the junior staff is usually far worse. During official hours 
they are entirely occupied in tutorial work, and what little energy 
remains must more often than not be devoted to coaching or 
literary work, to supplement the too modest income which the 
salary attached to their official position affords. Under these 
circumstances, it is remarkable that so much enthusiasm should 
prevail among them on the subject of research. The tradition 
which prevails in the German schools, that the junior staff are 
bound to find some time for original work, is almost unknown in 
this country, and too often difficulties are raised, rather than 
facilities afforded, when the desire is manifested: we do not, in 
fact, sufficiently honour the assistant as the potential professor. 
It has also often struck me as cemarkable, and it must have 
struck others who understand the German system, that in this 
practical country we have not adopted that cheap luxury—the 
Privat-Docent, who costs nothing and exercises a most important 
function in promoting higher education. The explanation of 
this and many other anomalies lies in the fact that very few 
among us realise what a university is: a clear exposition of the 
Scotch and German systems would be of great value in these 
days of new universities and university colleges. 
I believe that in most, if not all, of the German chemical 
schools a private research assistant is placed at the disposal of 
the professor. Will this ever be the case here? The want 
material assistance is not only felt in this respect, however : 
few of our chemical schools are really efficiently equipped ; 
most of them are seriously in want of larger and more expensive 
apparatus, of suitable specimens, &c. ; the annual grant barely 
suffices for the purchase of the ordinary chemicals and the pay- 
ment of unavoidable current expenses, so that, as a rule, nothing 
remains to meet the expenses of research work—7.e., of higher 
education. In point of fact, nearly all of those who are en- 
gaged in research are doing so at their own expense ; important 
assistance, for which we cannot be too thankful, is indeed 
received from the various research funds, but the proportion 
which the grants bear to the total sum expended is not large. I 
am sure we all recognise that each one of us is bound, according 
to his abilities and the opportunities he has, to add to the stock 
of knowledge, and that the keenest intellectual pleasure is 
derived therefrom ; but it must not be forgotten that the results 
we obtain are very rarely of immediate practical value, and that 
as a rule we reap no pecuniary advantage. I venture to think, in 
act, that it is remarkable that so much, not that so little, is done, 
and that reproach rests very lightly apon the profession in this 
matter. Whether our national pride will prevent our being much 
longer beholden to foreigners for by far the greater number of 
new facts in chemistry is a difficult question to answer, and must 
rest with the public ! 
The occasions on which we teachers of science subjects are 
able to bear witness in public are of necessity few. Deeply 
sensible, not only of the honour, but also of the responsibility of 
my position as President of this Section, I felt that it was my 
duty to avail myself of this opportunity. Being a teacher who 
is interested in teaching ; being convinced of the existence of 
most serious faults in our educational system ; feeling that the 
present is a most critical period : I have not hesitated to speak 
very freely. Some of the difficulties to which I have referred 
might soon disappear if science teachers generally would agree 
to consider them together, and I believe that it would be a very 
great advantage if an association for the discussion of educational 
questions were formed of the staffs of our science colleges 
throughout the country. The special difficulties which surround 
our science colleges, and prevent them from exercising their full 
share of influence upon the advancement of our national prosperity 
might also be removed at no distant date; but I see only one 
way of accomplishing this, and I fear it will hardly find favour : 
it is by their all becoming vested in the State. In this country 
we like to do things in our own way, and the objection will at 
once be raised that this would deprive all the colleges of their in- 
dividuality, and would tend to crush originality and to stereotype 
NATURE 
453 
teaching. If I thought so I should never make the sugges- 
tion. But it would not, provided that complete academic 
freedom were secured to the staff, and each college were left to 
adjust itself to local requirements ; efficiency would be maintained 
by the competition of the various colleges. Local enterprise, 
which has hitherto been trusted to, is clearly breaking down 
under the tremendous strain of modern educational requirements : 
some change must ere long be made. 
(To be continued.) 
SECTION C 
GEOLOGY 
OPENING ADDRESss BY ProF. J. W. Jupp, F.R.S., Sec. G.S., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 
As this city is the only place within the limits of the Scottish 
Highlands where our Association holds its annual gatherings, it 
is fitting that the attention of those who meet in this section 
should, on the present occasion, be specially directed to the 
grand problems of Highland geology. Six-and-twenty years 
have passed since the members of this section assembled here, 
under the presidency of my dear friend, my revered master, 
Charles Lyell. Few now present can have actually listened to 
the stormy discussions of that memorable occasion, but all are 
familiar with the nature of the problems which in the year 1859 
were here so keenly debated. It is true that the fires of these 
controversies have now almost died out, and from their ashes 
have arisen the new problems which confront us to-day ; but it 
will not, I think, be without profit to direct your attention for 
a few minutes to those two subjects which constituted the 
“burning questions” of that day—the age of the Crystalline 
Rocks of the Highlands, and the geological position of the 
Reptiliferous Sandstone of Elgin. 
With respect to the first of these questions, there are especial 
reasons why I should briefly review the discussions which have 
taken place in connection with it. It was in the meetings of 
this section of the British Association that the successive stages 
of the controversy were gradually developed. It was at a former 
meeting of the Association in this city that James Nicol sub- 
mitted to the scientific world that splendid solution of a difficult 
problem, which is now universally admitted to have been the 
correct one. This university was, during the last twenty-seven 
years of his active, useful, and honoured life, the scene and 
centre of the labours of that profound but modest thinker to 
whom we owe so much. Lest it should seem presumption on my 
part to speak on the question, I may add that for some years 
before his death it was my good fortune to enjoy the friendship 
and confidence of the late Prof. Nicol, with whom I had several 
opportunities of discussing the great questions at issue between 
himself and Murchison. Seeing, as I do to-day, his own great 
claims too often forgotten or ignored, I feel that, should I, on 
this occasion, hold my peace—‘‘ the very stones would cry out.” 
It will indeed be an unfortunate day for our republic of science 
when the palm of recognition—withheld from him whom modesty 
and self-respect restrain from clamorous self-assertion—is per- 
mitted to be snatched away by the bold and noisy advertiser of 
his own claims. 
Nearly seventy years ago, John Macculloch—that distinguished 
pioneer in Scottish geology—was able to prove that in our 
Western Highlands there exists a grand formation, made up of 
red sandstones and quartzite, both exhibiting unmistakable 
evidence of a sedimentary origin. He also pointed out that, 
associated with these red sandstones and quartzites, are beds of 
limestone, which are often altogether destitute of crystalline 
characters, and are sometimes bituminous, while they occasion- 
ally contain fossils. 
Macculloch strongly insisted that this great system of strata, 
which covers large areas in Sutherland and Ross, extending also 
into some of the Western Isles, is distinct alike from the Old- 
and the New-Red Sandstone; he asserted that it belongs to a 
far older period than either of those formations, and, employing 
the phraseology of the early geologists, he gave to it the name 
of the “ Primary Red Sandstone” (Zrans. Geol. Soc. ser. I, 
vol. ii. p. 450, &c. ‘* Western Isles of Scotland” (1819), vol. 
ii. p. 89, &c. ‘‘ System of Geology ” (1831). 
Macculloch showed clearly that the strata of his ‘* Primary 
Red Sandstone Formation”? are often found resting unconform- 
ably upon the gneissose and schistose rocks of the Highlands ; 
