® 4 *J Analyses of Books. ^53 
Hence an English version of Prof. Kolbe’s Text-book may justlv 
claim a hearty welcome. The preface alone is worth notice as 
authoritatively enforcing truths too much overlooked both bv 
teachers and students. He writes “ The chemist has to learn, 
not by reading, nor by hearing alone, but both by hearing and 
seeing. A person who has not seen the phenomena produced by 
the union of oxygen and hydrogen, for example, can have no clear 
conception of them nor of the chemical change which they involve. 
JN o thing is more foolish than the opinion, which I have often 
heard trom young medical students, that chemistry can be studied 
Irom books alone. . . . The science is learnt in the laboratory, 
not in the lerture-theatre. The most that can be done in lertures 
is to prepare the student for successful work in the laboratory. 
■ • • The problem of the lecturer on chemistry is to give 
his hearers an idea of chemical processes and the most important 
chemical theories without burdening their memories with a large 
number of mere farts, and thus to prepare them to acquire an 
accurate knowledge of chemistry by their own practical work." 
We must beg to call for a moment attention to the last five 
words. In them lies, we submit, the key to the unquestionable 
superiority of the German system of higher education to that 
which we still cling to in England. The English student “ reads ” 
for a degree, for honours. The German student “works” or 
“ investigates.” Hence the German achieves greatness in virtue 
of his training, whilst the Englishman, if he rises to eminence, 
does it in spite of his training. 
It need scarcely be said that in the original text of Prof. Kolbe’s 
work there is no reference to any examinations or “ syllabus.” 
Here, however, the editor steps in, remarking that “ in adapting 
the book for English students certain alterations and additions 
were necessary.” Eheu ! 
'The Round 1 able Series. (III.) John Ruskin, Economist. 
Edinburgh : William Brown. 
We have here a pamphlet which will amply repay thoughtful 
perusal, and which indeed ought to be studied by every man and 
woman of culture. The author (Mr. Patrick Geddes), whose 
name appears not on the title page but at the end of his treatise, 
is not a mere litterateur, but a man who has been trained to 
scientific research, and has proved himself therein no mean 
proficient. 
We may be asked what assistance an aptitude for or a profi- 
ciency in scientific investigation can give to any man in the 
appreciation of John Ruskin? Is he not a Bestiarian and an 
opponent of Evolution ? Has he not blasphemed entomology, 
VOL. VI. (THIRD SERIES) 2 0 
