r SCIENCE. 



179 



Academy, roughly yet faithfully ; and I feel constrained 

 to confess my inability to comprehend the enthusiasm 

 which there appears to exist in certa ; n quarters in 

 England for this institution, and which shows itself in 

 the desire to copy it. I have dwelt in a former letter 

 upon the functions which any society should perform 

 in order to be called useful, and I cannot bring myself 

 to believe that those of the French Academy correspond 

 in any way to the model. 



I have spoken, in a former communication, in words of 

 unavoidable eulogium, of the German Universities and 

 the position which they occupy among similar institu- 

 tions in Europe. Still I do not find in their organization 

 anything that I should be prepared to recommend for 

 imitation or adoption. I shall presently mention the 

 mischievous effects which the Universities in Germany, 

 like the Academy in France, exercise on scientific devel- 

 opment, according to my belief, when I shall enter upon 

 the discussion of the principles which underlie the orga- 

 nization of both : here I wish merely to give an opinion 

 upon the institution of so-called privat-docenten, which 

 is generally considered as most characteristic of the 

 German University system, and which has many ad- 

 mirers out of Germany. A privat-docent is simply a 

 lecturer who, as a rule, receives no pay from govern- 

 ment or the University, but may take fees from the 

 students : he is simply a private tutor, who, in consider- 

 ation of having passed an examination or other ordeals 

 before the proper authorities, is admitted to the use of 

 the public lecture-rooms. In my opinion the fellowships 

 in the English Universities — if only Fellows were elect- 

 ed upon a better principle— are much more advanta- 

 geous ; and if the now somewhat dormant institutions 

 of lecturers and praslectors in the colleges were more 

 largely developed, the English Universities would have 

 nothing to envy from, and much to boast over, those of 

 Germany in this respect. 



The principal aim of the German Universities, as 

 well as of the French Academy, is to uphold the prin- 

 ciple of authority in science, which has a great many 

 effects that are detrimental to its progress. Authority 

 in science means infallibility, and it means also s'agna- 

 nation. But the essence of science is development, 

 which is identical with change, and variation from 

 ancient theories or received doctrines. The French 

 Academy has generally not been favorable to novelties 

 started out of its own precincts, as is shown by its 

 treatment of such men as Fresnel, Fourier or Melloni. 

 1 know also of a case in which it was found impossible 

 to get a correction or mention of mistakes, which one 

 of its members had happened to make, inserted in the 

 proceedings of the Academy, notwithstanding repeated 

 attempts. The desire to have this done was supposed 

 to imply naivete. In a similar way the German Uni- 

 versities enforce a certain uniformity in the preparation 

 of scientific students, and they measure all ability by 

 a fixed yet arbitrary standard. Investigation must 

 be schulgerecht, as it is called — for which the 

 French have the word classique, but I doubt whether 

 there be any real equivalent in English. A mind of 

 independent character or original turn has thus a hard 

 struggle for existence ; for, in order to get recognized, it 

 must be fashioned on the approved pattern. Men like 

 Davy or Faraday are consequently unknown to the his- 

 tory of German or French science, as their irregular 

 preparation would have debarred them from coming 

 under notice, and still more so from making their way. 

 On the other hand, great errors are propagated and kept 

 up under the wing of authority ; and if nice a philoso- 

 pher has obtained a certain sway, or foimed a so-called 

 " school," his teaching will be kept up long after its errors 

 have been detected. Thus certain theories are still 

 taught all over Germany in physics which are manifestly 

 untenable, and to attack them is punished more severely 



than heresy is in religion nowadays. Theories pro- 

 pounded by new men are generally overlooked. On the 

 other hand, I could tell an instance in the recent history of 

 physical science where a discovery undoubtedly not novel 

 and manifestly incomplete has been accepted on the 

 Continent as an unexpected revelation proof against all 

 doubt, because it was appropriated by names possessing 

 authority. What constitutes authority in science it were 

 difficult to define; yet its worship, although it be op- 

 posed to the very spirit of science, is in Germany and 

 France, so to speak, without bounds. It were easy to 

 prove by example that the test of infallibility is not appli- 

 cable, if such a thing could be imagined with respect to 

 a human mind. Not only are the instances numerous 

 where the authorities of one age have been scouted by 

 those of the succeeding, but even in the works of the 

 greatest among them, whose reputations were acquired 

 on the strength of real intellect and conspicuous services, 

 schoolboys nowadays frequently may point out glaring 

 mistakes committed or upheld by great masters only one 

 generation behind. 



I have mentioned in a former letter the well-known 

 fact that a German philosopher who wished to bring out 

 some novel theory in his country encountered so many 

 difficulties that he absolutely went mad. Another who 

 started similar ideas about the same time, having been 

 repulsed in one quarter, took it for granted that the same 

 had happened to him also in another, where it was not 

 the case, so hopeless did he consider his endeavor to 

 obtain a hearing. Actually these ideas took wing in 

 England, but not before, communicated also to the 

 French Academy, they had been allowed to rest un- 

 noticed in its archives for years (like the memoirs of 

 Abel), notwithstanding repeated instances to have them 

 examined. I also have it out of the mouth of one, who 

 is actually himself a chief authority on physical science 

 in Germany, that an early work of his, now the principal 

 foundation of his fame, had proved injurious to his uni- 

 versity career, for being of too novel a character. It is a 

 slight consolation to the individuals concerned, for the 

 anxietv or pain they have suffered, to have had their 

 names recently enrolled on the list of members of the 

 French Academy, or to have received an honorary title 

 from a German University ; and the damage which is 

 done to science by such proceedings, in all cases serious, 

 is in many irreparable. Authority, whether exercised by 

 academies or universities, would have its uses it it facili- 

 tated the endeavors of students during the early and more 

 trying periods of their career, in which encouragement 

 and aid are most welcome and needed ; but if, instead, it 

 check or impede novices, and establish merely a kind 

 of confraternity, the chief end of which is to keep new 

 men out as long as feasible, and to uphold its own 

 sway, I make bold to say that the liberty of thought 

 reigning in England, notwithstanding its abuses, is a far 

 more valuable safeguard for science, the very life of which 

 is progress. Now, if the Royal Society, transformed 

 into or superseded by an academy, were to arrogate to 

 itself that kind of domination which the Academie des 

 Sciences exercises in France, or if the English universi- 

 ties endeavored to absorb all the intellectual life of the 

 nation, or to fashion it in their own way, as is the case 

 in Germany, the superiority of England, which has made 

 it the head-quarters of scientific progress and the mother 

 country of so many amateurs more distinguished in sci- 

 ence than most French academicians or German pro- 

 fessors, would probably be gone. 



Toxicology. — An Italian commission, including among 

 its members Prof. Selmi, is examining the methods for the 

 detection of poisonous alkaloids in the viscera, with 

 especial reference to the so called " ptomaines," — alkaloids 

 which under certain circumstances may be generated dur- 

 ing the putrescence of animal matter. 



