AT MAGDALEN COLLEGE 25 



It is always a matter of gratification to the Biologist when, 

 for the purposes of his own research, he has invented or im- 

 proved some instrument, with such success that by its means 

 a new field of discovery has been opened in the more exact 

 sciences of Chemistry and Physics. The Physiologist, in striving 

 to measure the minute space of time required by a nervous 

 impulse to travel along its conducting path, had brought the 

 electric chronograph to such perfection that Dr. Dixon was 

 able to measure the velocity of explosion waves in gases 

 by it, and Mr. Jervis-Smith has been able to adapt the same 

 instrument to record the velocity of bullets at the moment of 

 leaving the barrel of a rifle. The microscope also owes its 

 perfection chiefly to the requirements of Biological Research, 

 and the best test-objects for it are still supplied by the or- 

 ganic world. And, finally, the Sprengel pump, without which 

 electric glow-lamps would have remained undiscovered, was 

 the invention of a Physiologist. 



It is by such means that the Biological Sciences are able 

 to repay part of the debt they owe to Chemistry and Physics, 

 and we are pleased to think that our Physiological Labora- 

 tory should have contributed towards the payment of that 

 debt in providing Dr. Dixon with the instruments by which 

 his valuable results were obtained. 



To continue the account of the teaching in the Laboratory Instruc- 

 in recent times, it only remains to be said that the resources p" c j." cal 

 of the institution have been chiefly devoted to Practical Chemis- 

 Chemistry. The courses of instruction which were originally tr y- 

 arranged under Mr. Chapman have become more and more 

 popular, and are being ably conducted by Mr. J. J. Manley, 

 who succeeded Mr. J. Harris as Daubeny Curator in 1888 ; 

 and many men from other colleges, being attracted by the 

 facilities afforded for study, have applied for admission. 

 Owing to limited space the instruction is advisedly principally 

 confined to Quantitative work. 



A new departure was made in Lent Term, 1889, when School- 

 the Laboratory (built in 1863) belonging to Magdalen Col- boys * 

 lege School was refitted for Analytical Chemistry by the 

 Rev. W. E. Sherwood. Lectures in Chemistry, Optics, Heat, 



