196 SCHOOL OF MINES AND MUSEUM CHAP, vi 



But everything seemed gilded now by the brightness 

 that had at last risen upon his domestic prospects. 

 He opened his course of geological instruction with an 

 Introductory Lecture ' On the Science of Geology and 

 its Applications.' The course began on the 6th January, 

 and consisted of thirty lectures, given on Tuesday and 

 Friday. To make the Museum and its contents more 

 widely known, and to diffuse a taste for science among 

 the people, evening lectures to working men were 

 organised as part of the educational work of the 

 Jermyn Street establishment. Each of the six 

 teachers of the school gave a single evening lecture, 

 so that the course consisted of six lectures, tickets 

 being only obtainable by those who could show that 

 they were truly artisans, and a registration fee of six- 

 pence being charged for the course. Afterwards each 

 teacher gave a course of six lectures. The instruction 

 thus afforded, and still continued up to the present 

 time, has been eminently popular among the class 

 for which it was designed, large crowds sometimes 

 assembling in front of the Museum door at the 

 hour when the tickets for some specially attractive 

 series of lectures are given out. In that first winter 

 of 1851-52 Ramsay chose as his subject 'The Utility 

 of Geological Maps.' So much were the lectures 

 appreciated by the working men that they were 

 repeated later in the spring. 



A few jottings from Ramsay's diary of this period 

 are here inserted. Of the meetings of the Geological 

 Society he writes : 



' 2Otk February (1852). Geological Society 

 Anniversary, Willis's Rooms. President [W. Hop- 

 kins] pretty well supported Goulbourne, Sir C. 

 Lemon, Pusey, Sir H., Lyell, Murchison, etc. I 



