726 National Scientific Appointments. [November*, 
assuredly more to the purpose than English history. Animal 
geography, based as a matter of course upon physical geo- 
graphy, would also have been a useful feature. But these 
subjects seem to have escaped the notice of the Science 
and Art Department, or to have been crowded out by less 
relevant matter. 
In what manner the examination will be conducted it does 
not, of course, appear. It is possible that the practical 
knowledge of candidates will be carefully weighed, and will 
stand them in more stead than any amount of mere words 
— that, e.g., in zoology they will be called upon to name, or 
at least to refer to the correct order and family, specimens 
placed before them assigning grounds for such classifica* 
tion. But it is, on the other hand, possible that the 
whole affair will resolve itself into a question of verbal 
memory, and that the candidate who from his own mental 
emptiness most eagerly absorbs and most glibly reproduces 
the views of others will win the day. 
These considerations naturally remind us that the “ Regu- 
lations” hold out neither inducement nor reward for research. 
We might reasonably expeCt that in such a case original 
observations or experimental results might, according to 
their value, count for hundreds, or even thousands of marks, 
and if of pre-eminent merit might be held to decide the 
contest irrespective of all other points. But not so ; inves- 
tigations, however successful, and discoveries, however bril- 
liant, count here absolutely for nothing, whether in the 
obligatory or in the optional department. Their very possi- 
bility is not taken into account, and their production would, 
we fear, be looked upon as little better than contempt of 
court. How many of the world’s greatest naturalists would 
escape being ignominiously “ plucked ” if pitted, under such 
regulations, against candidates possessing an excellent 
verbal memory and accustomed to the “cramming” process ? 
We have met with eminent men of science who admit that 
they would utterly fail if examined in their own published 
researches against men of this stamp. 
The very root of the cramming system lies in the strange 
circumstance that the division of labour, so widely and so 
usefully recognised in the industrial arts, should still be 
deemed inapplicable in the sciences, and should even, in 
some influential quarters, be regarded as rank heresy. Ages 
ago the wise saw “Jack of all trades and master of none” 
was understood and aCted upon in the practical world. But 
we still will not recognise a man to be master of any science 
unless he can be, or seem to be, “Jack” of all. Suppose 
