The librarian, finally, must not be forgotten, in making up our list of the zoologist's helpers. The preservation and cataloguing of zoological literature is obviously a task all the more important, because, as we have already stated, zoological writings are not regulated by the law of supply and demand. A very little paper, read to a very small meeting of a learned society, and wholly ignored by the world at large, may contain facts priceless to the world of science. It is on the accurate and painstaking work of the librarian, who preserves and catalogues small things as conscientiously as large ones, that we rely for the completeness of our record of zoological knowledge. Such work has at all times been carried on in the libraries of our universities; but at the present time there are in existence libraries specially devoted to zoological literature alone.
The museum, again, must not be forgotten, in which our man of learning stores his specimens, duly labelled and arranged. Here, again, is a staff of curators and sub-curators; and, under their direction, work for various workmen, and for perhaps even a humble charwoman to dust the shelves.
Turn now to another aspect of the zoologist's work--that of teaching. We should think it very wrong to turn men loose on the world to practise in the professions of law or medicine without a long and careful training to fit them for their task. No less impossible is it for anyone to become a man of science without a similar training; for the profession of the man of science, whether zoologist, chemist, botanist, or expert in whatever branch, if defined in plain English, is the profession of seeking after knowledge of the order of things in which we live; and what profession can be more important to the world than this? To attain a scientific degree of any value, years of study are therefore required, and a series of examinations tests--or is supposed to test--the success of the student. Both the work of teaching and the work of examining must be the tasks of the scientist who has attained a position of eminence in the world of learning. The preparation of lectures, with their accompanying illustrations of diagrams and lantern slides: the guiding of classes engaged in the actual work of making acquaintance with animal specimens--these are the labours of the great man who is at the head of things. His task is carried out with the aid of junior helpers of his own profession--the demonstrators, who "point out" detail after detail of the work described in the lectures. Another helper, more esteemed by the students than by the professor who teaches them, is the "coach" who prepares them directly for their examinations. His aid, in the shape of extra teaching, given at the last moment, will often secure for the careless and inattentive pupil, better success than is the lot of the painstaking and industrious one, who cannot afford to pay extra fees.
