432 Chronides of Science. [July, 



was agreed that the following petition should be presented to both 

 Houses of Parliament : — 



The Hwmble Fetition of tlie President and Council of tJie 

 Cliemical Society. 



Sheweth — That the Chemical Society was incorporated by 

 Eoyal Charter for the general advancement of Chemical Science, as 

 intimately connected with the prosperity of the manufactures of the 

 United Kingdom. That in the opinion of your petitioners, the future 

 intellectual position of Great Britain and her success as a manu- 

 facturing nation, are in a great measure dependent on the scientific 

 education of her people. That the Society of Arts, in their report on 

 technical education, assert that the only efiectual systematic trainiag 

 for technical pursuits, consists of two steps — first, a thorough 

 study of several branches of science, including chemistry ; secondly, 

 professional pupillage. That at the present time the study of 

 natural science is altogether neglected in a large number of our 

 secondary schools, while in the remainder it occupies only a sub- 

 ordinate position, both in respect of the time allotted to it and of 

 the credit to be gained by proficiency Lu it. That the neglect 

 of the study of natural science is ia great part due to the influence 

 exercised by the endowed schools, which by their number, their 

 antiquity, and the large funds at their disposal, determine the 

 course of studies in other schools, their own course of education 

 representing the requirements of a past, rather than of the 

 present age. That the necessity for inquny into the teaching in 

 endowed grammar-schools has already been recognized, by the ap- 

 pointment by Her Majesty of three commissions to report on this 

 class of schools in England and Scotland. That the Schools 

 Inquiry Commission have in their report pointed out various prac- 

 ticable means for the promotion and extension of the study of 

 physical science in schools. Your petitioners, therefore, humbly 

 pray your Honourable House to enact such laws as may procm-e for 

 Chemistry, and other branches of natm-al science, as Important a 

 position among endowed school studies as that now occupied by 

 Latin and Greek. And your petitioners will, &c. 



Mr. J. Lothian Bell then dehvered a lecture " On the Chemistry 

 of the Blast-furnace." It is impossible to do more than refer to 

 this exhaustive paper, in which every part of the operations going 

 forward in the blast-furnace were passed in review, aud the chemical 

 actions going on explained. After the delivery of this lecture, 

 a discussion followed, in which Mr. Siemens, Captain Xoble, Mr. 

 Crosslcy, Mr, Cochrane, and others took part. After Mr. Bell's 

 lecture, ]\Ir. W. Chandler Roberts gave a verbal account of, and 

 exhibited the apparatus for showing the expansion of palladium by 



