480 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



own name, though no relation Thomas Thomson 1 

 the great chemist and mineralogist. Prior to 1831 

 a students' chemical laboratory, under Thomas 

 Thomson, at Glasgow University, flourished and 



1 [Note added February 12, 1885 : First Professor of Chemistry 

 in Glasgow University ; appointed 1818 ; held the chair till his 

 death, 1852. 



The minutes of the Faculty of Glasgow College show that as 

 early as the first month of 1828, Prof. Thomas Thomson began 

 applying for more commodious premises in which to carry on his 

 work in the department of chemistry. For two years he kept his 

 wants persistently before the Faculty (of which he, being only a 

 ' ' Regius Professor," was not a member) until January, 1830, when his 

 efforts were crowned with success. A plot of ground was then pur- 

 chased at the corner of College Street and Shuttle Street, outside the 

 College precincts, and operations were at once begun, and pushed 

 on with such vigour that the buildings seem to have been finished 

 towards the end of the same year. The building thus erected con- 

 tained ample and well-designed accommodation for teaching and 

 experimental work. There was a large class-room and a large and 

 conveniently arranged public laboratory for students, with private 

 rooms for the professor and for the prosecution of experimental 

 research by the professor and his assistants, or by students and 

 others. 



Part of the ground floor of the premises was let to a tenant (the 

 " FalstafT Tavern " for many years !). To-day I found the building 

 still in existence, and occupied by " George Younger and Co.'s Yarn 

 Stores." Nearly all the rest of the University Buildings within the 

 College precincts have been pulled down within the last twelve 

 years for the "College Railway Station," which now occupies the 

 site of the old Glasgow College and University. W. T.] 



