[October, 
550 Progress in Science. 
meaning at all, it implied that he who had obtained it was at least on a level 
with the ordinary graduate, and should be eligible to university positions of 
the highest trust. 
Dr. Andrews advocated that the English universities should recognise the 
ancient universities of Scotland as freely as they had always recognised the 
Elizabethan University of Dublin. If this union were established among the 
old universities, and if at the same time a new university — as he had earnestly 
proposed ten years ago — were founded on sound principles amidst the great 
populations of Lancashire and Yorkshire, the university system of the country 
would gradually receive a large and useful extension, and, without losing any 
of its present valuable characteristics, would become more intimately related 
than hitherto with those great industries upon which mainly depend the 
strength and wealth of the nation. 
If Great Britain is to retain the commanding position she has so long 
occupied in skilled manufacture, the highest training which can be brought 
to bear on practical science will, Dr. Andrews said, be imperatively required; 
and it would be a fatal policy if that training had to be sought for in foreign 
lands, because it could not be obtained at home. The country which depended 
unduly on the stranger for the education of its skilled men, or neglected in its 
highest places this primary duty, might expect to find the demand for such 
skill gradually to pass away, and along with it the industry for which it was 
wanted. That education in its highest sense, based on a broad scientific 
foundation, and leading to the application of science to practical purposes — in 
itself one of the noblest pursuits of the human mind — could be most effectively 
given in a university, or in an institution like the Polytechnic School of 
Zurich, which differed from the scientific side of a university oniy in name, and 
to a large extent supplemented the teaching of an actual university, he was 
firmly convinced ; and for this reason, among others, he had always deemed 
the establishment in this country of examining boards with the power of 
granting degrees, but with none of the higher and more important functions of 
a university, to have been a measure of questionable utility. It was to Oxford 
and Cambridge, widely extended as they could readily be, that the country 
should chiefly look for the development of practical science ; they had abun- 
dant resources for the task; and if they wished to secure and strengthen 
their lofty position, they could do it in no way so effectually as by showing 
that in a green old age they preserved the vigour and elasticity of youth. 
Dr. Andrews instanced the University of Berlin. It was founded in the 
year 1810, at a period when the pressure of foreign domination weighed 
almost insupportably on Prussia; and Dr. Hofmann had remarked that it 
would ever remain significant of the direction of the German mind that the 
great men of that time should have hoped to develop, by high intellectual 
training, the forces necessary for the regeneration of their country,” and in his 
recent report on the artificial dyes, M. Wurtz said — “ Let us not suppose that 
the distance is so great between theory and its industrial applications. This 
report would have been written in vain if it had not brought clearly into view 
the immense influence of pure science upon the progress of industry. If 
unfortunately the sacred flame of science should burn dimly or be extinguished, 
the practical arts would soon fall into rapid delay. The outlay which is 
incurred by any country for the promotion of science and of high instruction 
will yield a certain return ; and Germany has not had long to wait for the 
ingathering of the fruits of her far-sighted policy. Thirty or forty years ago, 
industry could scarcely be said to exist there ; it is now widely spread and 
successful.” 
Dr. Andrews concluded by saying that “ Whatever be the result 
of our efforts to advance science and industry, it requires no gift of 
prophecy to declare that the boundless resources which the supreme author 
and upholder of the universe has provided for the use of man will, as time 
rolls on, be more and more fully applied to the improvement of the physical 
and, through the improvement of the physical, to the elevation of the moral 
condition of the human family. Unless, however, the history of the future of 
our race be wholly at variance with the history of the past, the progress of 
