ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 
651 
more complete and radical. It must consist, not in adding 
natural science to the system of instruction in which we our¬ 
selves and our predecessors were brought up, but in substi¬ 
tuting for some of the old drudgeries something better and 
more substantial. As regards that higher education which 
may he defined as introductory to the studies of the univer¬ 
sity, most people are now disposed to recognise that there 
exists at the present day a tendency to increase its extent at 
the expense of its thoroughness. On the one hand a power¬ 
ful effort is being made by the lauclcitores temporis acti to 
maintain the old disciplines, while on the other, a general, 
though somewhat vague notion, prevailed that no system of 
education shall he regarded as complete from which science is 
excluded. To reconcile these antagonistic tendencies the only 
method found has been that of addition and accumulation. 
Instead of displacing some of the old requirements, an addi¬ 
tional load of new subjects has been imposed on the unfor¬ 
tunate examinee in the form of chemistry, physics, animal 
philosophy, &c. No wonder that, to the victim who has just 
passed through one of our modern ordeals, the very names of 
these sciences are sickening; for, in addition to the dis¬ 
agreeable task of getting them up from text books (text hooks, 
however excellent, are at best but very poor reading), the 
competitor, whether successful or not, has the consoling 
reflection that he has been doing treadmill work after all, 
learning a number of facts and laws of great value to the 
man who is able to possess himself of them, hut to him ren¬ 
dered absolutely useless by the mode of study to which the 
present system of examinations has compelled him. The way 
to obviate this I have already hinted at. Let it be clearly 
understood, that if natural science is to he made a part of our 
educational system, it must be introduced, not as an orna¬ 
mental addition or accomplishment, but as part of the ground¬ 
work. To serve as a groundwork, we must admit that 
physiology is obviously not suitable. The corner stone must, 
of course, be mathematics. Side by side mathematics the 
subjects which ought to claim preference are physics and 
chemistry, and this for several reasons. The first is that, 
while chemistry is an indispensable preparation for the 
acquirement of the other allied sciences, it can itself be taught 
and understood independently; a second reason is, that the 
appliances required for teaching it may be easily obtained, 
and the modes of demonstration such that it can be taught 
thoroughly and efficiently, not from hooks, of course, hut in 
the laboratory. The third, and most important reason, is 
that the study itself is fitted in a remarkable degree to serve 
