i CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 15 



school. Even in those days we had a chemical labor- 

 atory in which the boys worked, and besides chemistry 

 we learnt drawing, natural philosophy, and French, as 

 well as the stock subjects of English, mathematics, and 

 classics. I did not do much either at classics or at mathe- 

 matics, but I obtained a knowledge of things in general 

 during my stay of seven years at the school, and I think it 

 served my mother's purpose and my own (if I then had 

 any) fairly well. I came under the hands of masters 

 of many kinds. Balmain, afterwards well known as the 

 discoverer of " Balmain's luminous paint " and of boron 

 nitride, was our teacher in chemistry, and from him I 

 suppose I picked up my love for the subject. Balmain 

 was a genial fellow with whom I afterwards had 

 some dealings. " Now, boys," he said one day, " if 

 working in the laboratory you ever get any acid on 

 your clothes, come to me and I will put some ammonia 

 on and prevent the clothes from getting destroyed." 

 One day a very small boy who still wore a long blouse 

 came to him. " Please, sir," said he, " I have got 

 some acid on my trousers behind will you put some 

 ammonia on ? " And, on lifting his blouse, there were no 

 trousers at all they had been eaten away by the acid. 

 " Well, my boy, I think if I put on the ammonia you 

 won't like it ! " he remarked. 



Balmain's method of impressing the nature of a 

 chemical reaction upon the minds of the small boys was 

 as original as it was successful. Thus on one occa- 

 sion a class of thirty or forty boys was ordered into the 

 laboratory after a lecture on the method of preparing 

 sulphuretted hydrogen. There each boy was provided 

 with a glass containing powdered sulphide of iron and 

 with a second one containing dilute sulphuric acid. 

 ' When I give the word of command," said Balmain, 

 " each boy will pour the acid on to the sulphide, and you 



