Abstract
THE Council of the Royal Geographical Society have presented a “remarkable memorial” to H.M. Commissioners of the University of Oxford, to those of Cambridge, and to the Governing Bodies of either University. “The burden of this memorial is. that steps ought to be taken for the establishment of professorships of geography in the two universities. The memorial points out forcibly and justly the ignorance of geography in its highest sense, in this country, where it is commonly confounded with mere topography. The Council of the Society, we are pleased to see, show that they possess an adequate conception of the position which geography ought to occupy, and which, indeed, it does occupy in the Universities of Germany, Switzerland, and France. We have often repeated that geography is really the meeting-place of all the sciences, and this is the idea which the Council endeavour to enforce upon the Commissioners and governing bodies of the universities. They show, how, to have an adequate knowledge of geography it is necessary to know something of both the biological and physical sciences, and be able to trace the mutual influence of man and his surroundings. The duties of such a professor as the Council desire to see appointed, the memorial states, would be first, to promote the study of scientific geography, and secondly, to apply geographical knowledge in illustrating and completing such of the recognised university studies as require aid. It is suggested, also, that he might deliver at least one annual discourse on some subject of geographical research. The memorial rightly states that there is no country that can less afford to dispense with geographical knowledge, but we doubt if the number of members of the Geographical Society is any evidence that we have a greater natural interest in the subject than other people. Certainly we ought to have; for our interests are as wide as the world; and as the memorial states, it would not be difficult to cite instances in which these interests have been seriously compromised by a want of geographical knowledge. Thus, that as a nation, we are far behind, both in our conception and in our knowledge of geography: in its highest sense there can “be no doubt,” but whether this state of things is to be remedied by the founding of professorships of geography at Oxford and Cambridge is another question, which at present we cannot discuss. It appears to us at first sight as if it were beginning at the wrong end. Moreover, is not geography Jab its highest sense really only a branch of physiography, and would not the want in our university education be most effectually met by a professorship, or perhaps a lectureship, on that subject? At all events we are grateful to the Geograpnical Society for drawing attention to the importance and comprehensiveness which geography has assumed the Continent, and to the lamentable want of interest the subject. Which exists in this country.
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Geographical Notes . Nature 19, 421–422 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/019421a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019421a0