530 - The British Association . [October, 
a part of higher education, is at last beginning to be recog- 
nised in this country. The Royal University Commission 
at Oxford has recently recommended that candidates for the 
higher degrees in science shall, in that University, be re- 
quired in future to work out an original investigation. In 
Germany, where education has been so long and so well 
understood, original work has been, for at least the last half 
century, a sine qua non for a degree. Another admirable rule 
exists in that country, the adoption of which in Great Britain 
might go far to wash out the stain from our islands, of not 
having contributed our fair quota to the advancement of 
human knowledge. It is this — the Germans make a point 
of securing invariably that their scientific chairs shall be 
filled by men who have already distinguished themselves by 
their discoveries. The professor, on his appointment, 
naturally desires to continue his investigations, and en- 
deavours to secure, and usually succeeds in securing, the 
assistance of his pupils. This is a mutual advantage. The 
professor is able to do more work for science, and the 
student, on his part, learns to conduct for himself an 
original investigation. Hence there is always a rising 
generation of original workers in Germany who turn out 
papers more or less meritorious with the rapidity of a 
Walter’s press. They are stimulated by the hope of one 
day arriving themselves at a professor’s chair, the path to 
which they are well assured is only through the toilsome 
field of original investigation. The labour is also one of 
love, and the student’s ambition, for the time at least, is 
bounded by the desire to do something for science. And 
from a multitude of such enthusiasts the great professors 
come. 
Speaking of the encouragement of research in this country 
the President said, that to promote original work in this 
country, he believed it was indispensable that our professors 
should be well paid. It would save them from the necessity 
of supplementing their incomes by commercial analyses, and 
thus enable them to devote their spare time to original 
work. And to secure that they shall have spare time, he 
would like to see in every laboratory a competent assistant, 
who would be able occasionally to take up the professor’s 
lectures, should he be engaged in important work. He was 
glad to see that the Oxford Commission also recommends 
the appointment of well-paid assistants. Well-paid pro- 
fessorships and well-paid assistantships would be attractive 
prizes for our students to work up to ; and if it were clearly 
understood that the only way to these prizes was through 
