JlXY 24, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



117 



or, more properly, of making a more lasting 

 impression on his mind than is possible 

 through the mere words of lectures was, of 

 course, felt everywhere. Instead of being 

 merely receptive, taking in lectures, and com- 

 paring them, at best, perhaps with some books, 

 the student was to be put face to face with 

 the problem, to be forced to be reproductive, 

 and thus to be led to become productive. 



The strong sympathy for the perfect liberty 

 of the university student throughout Germany 

 discriminated against any attempt at intro- 

 ducing school methods into the university. 

 The natural sciences, of course, had developed 

 their demonstration and laboratory methods. 

 The other sciences, which are grouped together 

 as mental sciences (the German ' Geisteswis- 

 senschaften '), then tried also to introduce 

 practical studies. Thus the seminar was de- 

 veloped and has gained in favor ever since. 

 To-day we find ' Seminariibungen ' offered in 

 the different branches of theological studies, 

 jurisprudence, history, philology, philosophy, 

 etc. 



The word ' seminar,' as it is used at the 

 universities to-day, means, in the first place, 

 a room provided with tables for the students 

 and containing the department library, espe- 

 cially the periodicals, models, charts and other 

 study collections. The students become mem- 

 bers of the seminar by paying a small ' con- 

 tribution.' They receive a key to the seminar 

 rooms, a table and the right of access to, and 

 use of, all the books and apparatus of the 

 institution. Each seminar has a janitor to 

 keep things in order, and is open from S a.m. 

 to 9 P.M. (for members only, of course). The 

 students spend hours between lectures there, 

 study, write their theses, etc. One of the 

 finest and best equipped seminars of which I 

 ever was a member is the geographical seminar 

 of Professor Ratzel at Leipzig. It consists of 

 four rooms; one is the study of the professor, 

 one the study of his assistant, one is a large 

 room which contains a very fine department 

 library and the tables for the students, and in 

 the fourth large, hall-like room all the numer- 

 ous charts and maps, models and instruments 

 are kept and may be used on special large 



tables. The fact that all but this last room 

 open on an inner court of the university 

 buildings shuts out the noise of the street, 

 and the entire wing, being constructed to 

 accommodate nothing but seminars on all its 

 floors, is out of reach of the buzz of the stu- 

 dents going to and coming from their lectures. 



Besides the institution itself, the word sem- 

 inar means also the ' colloquia ' (or ' Besprech- 

 imgen ') and practical courses which are given 

 in the institution and which are also called 

 ' Seminariibungen ' or simply ' Ubungen.' 



The term ' Gesellschaft,' as used by certain 

 professors, means similar work, but on the 

 whole it corresponds more to what we call 

 zoological club or journal club in America. 



The chief advantage of all these courses is 

 that they bring the student in closer contact 

 with the professor. From my own experience 

 I know how much benefit may be derived from 

 this method. Wliile studying over there I 

 was fortunate enough to be admitted, for a 

 number of semesters, to the seminar conducted 

 by the professor of history of art (Professor 

 Sehmarsow, of Leipzig). Although these 

 studies were out of my line, I gained so much 

 there, and got such an insight into the meth- 

 ods and ways of thinking of the representa- 

 tives of the mental sciences, that I have 

 always been extremely thankful for this 

 chance. 



Quite recently seminars and seminariibung- 

 en have also been offered in the natural 

 sciences, more especially in zoology and bot- 

 any, at some of the German universities. 

 The mental sciences, which have found so 

 many of our methods useful for their pur- 

 poses, render thus, as it were, their thanks 

 and offer us a method which they have devel- 

 oped and which we might accept, perhaps, 

 with some advantage. 



The ' Practica ' and ' Praktischen Ubungen ' 

 in natural sciences do not concern us here, 

 they are simply laboratory courses independent 

 of, or, better, separated from, the lectures. 

 In many, perhaps most, cases the laboratory 

 methods for the first years of study are de- 

 cidedly better in this country. There are 

 better instruments and apparatus at hand. 



