478 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



work with their own hands. There have been 

 laboratories of investigation from the earliest 

 times. No doubt Aristotle had his ; and Archi- 

 medes had a laboratory wherever he went in his 

 bath, even, he observed, and studied, and thought 

 out the laws of hydrostatics. But those were not 

 students' laboratories, and our special subject 

 to-day is a students' laboratory, where they can 

 meet together for the practical study of the 

 various departments of science, where they will 

 be brought together to use their eyes and hands 

 their eyes otherwise than in merely reading books 

 and looking at pictures or drawings ; their eyes to 

 observe accurately, and their hands to experiment, 

 in order to learn more than can be learned by 

 mere observation. To teach students to so work 

 and so learn is the object of a scientific student's 

 laboratory. 



The first scientific laboratory that ever existed 

 was that of Frederick II., King of Sicily, and was 

 established between 1200 and 1250. Acting under 

 the advice of his chief physician, Martianus, he 

 made a law that nobody should practise physic 



