In the intervening time the form and fashion of scientific lectures has entirely changed, and the change is a testimony to the progress of science. It is visible even in the design of the apparatus. Microscopes, for example, have a perfection and a power undreamed of by our great-grandfathers, and they are supported on stands which lack the ornamentation of that bygone time, but possess stability and convenience. Everything and everybody--even the professor, if that be possible--must be business-like; and each moment of time must be utilised in experiments for demonstration, not for applause, and in brief and cogent statements of theory and fact. To waste time in talk that is not to the point is criminal. But withal there is need of grace of expression and vividness of description, of clearness of exposition, of imagination, even of poetical intuition: but the stern beauty of modern science is only disfigured by the old artificial adornments and irrelevancies. This is the tone and temper of science at the present day: the task is immense, the time is short. And sixty years since some tinge of the same cast of thought was visible in scientific workers and teachers. The Faculty agreed with Dr. Nichol that there was need to bring physical teaching and equipment into line with the state of science at the time; but they wisely decided to do nothing until they had appointed a Professor of Natural Philosophy who would be able to advise them fully and in detail. They determined, however, to make the appointment subject to such alterations in the arrangements of the department as they might afterwards find desirable.