elp us to a sight of the minute structure of
plants as seen with a microscope, about which, however, we could talk
eloquently from the book.

I sometimes wonder that fire did not descend from heaven and destroy a
University which so sinned against the first elements of knowing, in
neglecting the distinction between what we learn by our own personal
experience and what we acquire from books.

Of course there are some sciences which have their origin in practical
matters, _e.g._, chemistry, which originated partly in alchemy and partly
in what is now the work of the druggist; such a science was fortunate, in
that no one objected to its claim for practical teaching. Nevertheless,
the student of chemistry in my day easily fell into a lamentable dulness
of different coloured precipitates. I should have liked to do something
quantitative, however rough, to get away from the everlasting test-tube,
and to make, for instance, some of the historic experiments with gases.

Human anatomy again was always taught practically, _i.e._, by work in the
dissecting-room. But owing to the manner in which medical students were
examined, the subject failed to have the value it might have had; minute
questions were asked which no amount of dissecting would enable us to
answer. The book had to be learned by heart, and I shudder as I remember
the futile labour entailed. And the examination was so arranged, that
whilst we were "cramming" anatomy we had also to suffer over another
subject, materia medica, which was almost entirely useless, and wearisome
beyond belief. Much of it was about as rational a subject to a physician
as to a surgeon would be a minute knowledge of how his knives were made
and how steel is manufactured. I remember how, after getting through
this double ordeal of cram on drugs and on the structure of the body, I
heard a surgeon say in lecture: "This is one of the very few occasions on
which you must know your anatomy." I recall the anger and contempt I
then felt for the educational authorities, as I remembered the drudgery I
had gone through.

The want of organised practical work in zoology was perhaps a blessing in
disguise. For it led me to struggle with the subject by myself. I used
to get snails and slugs and dissect their dead bodies, comparing my
results with books hunted up in the University Library, and this was a
real bit of education. I remember too that a thoughtful brother sent me
a dead porpoise, wh