244 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



laboratory work. Mr. Lunt became an astronomer, and 

 got a place under Sir David Gill at Capetown ; Mr. 

 Scudder removed to Manchester to do work for me 

 in connection with river pollution, and my chances 

 of further original laboratory work came to an end. 



On resigning the professorship in the Owens College 

 in 1885, I printed for private circulation a statement 

 of my views as to the teaching of chemistry, together 

 with a record of work done in the department during 

 the thirty years in which I had charge, and upon 

 which, now, in my closing years, I look back as having 

 been the chief work of my life. 



In the first place, I recalled the position of the 

 college in 1857. The total number of students was 

 thirty-four, and of these fifteen worked in the Chemical 

 Laboratory, whilst in 1887 the number had reached 

 1 1 8. The institution in the outset of its career had 

 not gained the confidence of the public, and to acquire 

 it it had to fight many a stiff uphill battle. It was 

 only gradually that the idea was grasped that science 

 could be made an efficient instrument of education, 

 and that such an education was not only compatible 

 with, but absolutely necessary for, a successful industrial 

 career. Nor was it altogether an easy task to convince 

 the Trustees of the College that a mere repetition, on 

 an insignificant scale, of the old university system 

 could not be expected to succeed in Manchester ; or to 

 bring home to them that unless the institution was 

 to sink down to the level of a school (as many 

 advocated), or die out altogether, some new line had 

 to be struck out, and that the only possible one was 

 that of the encouragement and development of the 

 teaching of physical science. To make this a reality, 

 so far as chemistry and the allied sciences were 

 concerned, was my ambition ; and after thirty years of 



