478 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. XI. 



to the other in order to enfold George Wilson in a loving em- 

 brace. 



On returning to town, the difficulties to which he had been 

 looking forward, in making preparations for the winter, came in 

 full force. The number of visits to lawyers and others, and the 

 necessary worry kept up till the very day his lectures began, 

 were very wearing out, and a poor preparation for the labour and 

 excitement inseparable from an opening session, of which he had 

 said long before, "At the beginning of our session I have always 

 more to remember than I can call to mind. ... Its constant 

 high-pressure work has left me with great weariness both of 

 soul and body." 



Where he was to deliver his lectures remained an unsolved 

 problem till near the close of October. By the kindness of 

 Professor Donaldson, however, the use of the room he had occu- 

 pied in the University, and which he was quitting for the new 

 Music -Room in Park Place, was obtained. So little time was 

 left, that only by constant importunity and much annoying 

 labour was it got ready in time, the introductory lecture being 

 delivered with wet walls, and with carpenters' shavings on the 

 floor. 



To his life-long friend Professor Christison he was under 

 even greater obligations, as his laboratory within the University 

 walls was given up by him to Dr. Wilson for the winter. Here 

 was a circle completed : the youthful chemist who in that very 

 laboratory first obtained familiarity with the practice of his 

 favourite science, now returning to it as one whom men de- 

 lighted to honour, with, in his turn, young and ardent students 

 working under his directions. It was found to be too small to 

 accommodate Dr. Wilson's numbers, and a second laboratory, 

 also within the college, was fitted up, but never used, the ar- 

 rangements in it being scarcely completed when the session 

 began. His opening lecture was on " Technology as a Branch 

 of Liberal Study," and was chiefly devoted to illustrations of 

 the benefits resulting from science and art, theory and practice, 

 doctrine and work, acting and reacting on each other. Viewing 

 his own Chair as in some measure the uniting link between the 

 two, he considered historically the evils resulting from every 



