SCIENCE. 
179 
Academy, roughly yet faithfully ; and I feel constrained 
to confess my inability to comprehend the enthusiasm 
which there appears to exist in certain 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-docente7i, 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 praelectors 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 naivetd. 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 cnee a philoso- 
pher has obtained a certain sway, or formed 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 accep:ed 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 pioved injurious to his uni- 
versity career, for being of too novel a character. It is a 
slight consolation to the individuals concerned, for the 
anxiety 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 if 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 Acadfemie des 
Sciences exercises in France, or if the English universi- 
ties endeavored to absorb all the intellectual life of the 
na'ion, 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. 
