1864.] SENATE— No. 22. 9 



which they are now advised to read, in order to study the 

 history of their science. They frequently may find the masters 

 of our science at fault, and think themselves more learned than 

 men who have stood at the head of their respective departments. 

 The conceit of the most successful ones is often exalted by the 

 admiration paid to them by their fellow-students. There is 

 thus an unavoidable disposition to over-confidence and presump- 

 tion fostered among them by their very success. And now begins 

 for me the most difficult part of my task, which is also the most 

 difficult stage of the final scientific emancipation of the students, 

 when they are to be made to understand to what extent they 

 have been working with borrowed means, which honesty 

 requires they should pay back. The difficulty is the greater on 

 account of the fact that the intellectual capital to be restituted 

 belongs to him whose duty it is now to claim it back himself, 

 and at the same time make the student understand that it is 

 for his own good that he must settle his intellectual accounts. 

 The subtlety of all intellectual property is no doubt a source of 

 great perplexity in any attempt at the most impartial apprecia- 

 tion. I may add, however, that I have made my students par- 

 ticipants of all my investigations to an extent which I have 

 never found any other teacher to allow them. I know that 

 this course has its dangers, and I have already experienced it 

 on several occasions. Some of my colleagues have perceived it 

 and warned me. One of them, many years ago, told me that 

 he thought me imprudent in thus laying before my pupils every 

 thing I was doing, and speaking freely before them of my 

 scientific plans and aims. But I have only one object in life, 

 which is the advancement of science, and I shall not change my 

 course for the sake of self-protection merely. Through all I 

 have done in science, since I first begun to publish my investi- 

 gations, there runs a connecting train of thought, which nobody 

 can appropriate to himself. 



During the past years a large amount of contributions have 

 been* received from every quarter of the globe, thanks to the 

 liberality of our merchants and the continued interest shown to 

 the Museum by the people at large. These contributions 

 eonsist, as in former years, of every kind of object attracting 

 the attention or exciting the curiosity of the donors. Unfortu- 

 nately a great deal of what is thus indiscriminately gathered at 



