250 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



extended themselves enormously, it became plain that 

 the work of properly professing the whole of the 

 science had become too great for one individual, and at 

 my request Mr. Schorlemmer, F.R.S., was appointed 

 Professor of Organic Chemistry in i&J^. 1 He was 

 then the only professor of organic chemistry in the 

 country ; for at that time in no other institution in the 

 kingdom had it been thought worth while to encourage 

 the study of the organic branch of our science, or to 

 mark its great importance and extent by giving to it a 

 distinct position. 



Although, as I have already remarked, I am con- 

 vinced of the essential importance of laboratory practice 

 as bringing the student face to face with Nature, I 

 would by no means depreciate the value of attendance 

 on a thorough course of experimental lectures. In this 

 way the principles and the important facts of the science 

 are brought before the student in a consecutive and 

 systematic manner, and illustrated by experiment, 

 preparation, and diagram in a way impossible for the 

 pupil himself to accomplish. The delivery of my 

 lectures to both day and evening students was a con- 

 stant pleasure to me ; the devising of new experi- 

 mental illustration is always a matter of interest, 

 whilst the introduction of recent discoveries gives zest 

 to both lecturer and audience. I likewise made it a 

 practice to obtain courses on special subjects from some 

 of our assistant lecturers or from our Berkeley Fellows. 

 These proved of signal value to both teachers and 

 taught, and w.ere fully appreciated by the senior men. 



Having secured thorough and advanced teaching in 

 both the inorganic and organic branches of the 



1 The work done by Schorlemmer has been properly acknowledged by 

 the erection of a special organic laboratory named after him, where 

 original work in that branch of the science is now (1906) most successfully 

 carried on by his successor, Professor Perkin, F.R.S. 



