AT MAGDALEN COLLEGE 13 



from this science that in 1855 he delivered an address to 

 the Royal Institution On the Importance of the Stiidy of 

 Chemistry as a Branch of Education for all Classes. And 

 he put his theory into practice by personally instructing, as 

 the College Praelector of Natural Philosophy 1 , the under- 

 graduates of Magdalen College in Chemistry until his death, 

 in a series of annual courses of ' Catechetical Lectures/ com- 

 menced on October 28, 1855 2 . 



The average attendance was generally about ten ; and to 

 judge by an interleaved copy of Fownes's Treatise of Chemistry 

 in the Laboratory, the lectures were largely based upon that 

 manual. During the winter months, when impaired health 

 compelled him to live away from Oxford in the warmer 

 climate of Torquay, the course was continued by Mr. T. H. T. 

 Hopkins, Fellow of Magdalen College, during the winters 

 of 1858 and 1860; by Mr. H. G. Madan, Fellow of Queen's 

 College, in 1865; and by Mr. A. G. Girdlestone, Demy of 

 Magdalen, during Lent, 1867. The last lecture given by 

 Daubeny seems to have been on October 24, 1867. During 

 his last illness Mr. Girdlestone again carried on the work of 

 teaching from October 31 to December is, 1867. 



The chemical researches which were carried out by Dr. Dau- 

 Daubeny in the Magdalen Laboratory were chiefly of an j 3 t ny> 

 analytical nature, and related to the agricultural problems searches, 

 upon which he was engaged. He experimented upon samples 

 of Barley grown in soils containing varying amounts of potash 

 and soda; he examined the effect of Rocks of various geo- 

 logical ages upon the produce of barley sown in them ; and 

 the power of the Roots of plants in rejecting poisonous or 

 abnormal substances presented to them ; and a few months 

 before his death he published a paper on Ozone and on its 

 disengagement by the leaves of plants. A list in extenso of 

 his published researches will be found in Appendix D. 



1 Under the original statutes of Magdalen College the Praelector might 

 lecture either in divinity or natural philosophy at the discretion of the 

 College officers. 



2 The MS. of one of the first of his College lectures, delivered in 1820, is 

 still preserved in the Library, together with a pile of oft-revised MSS. of 

 later date. 



