Oct. 23, 1873] 
y 
NATURE 539 
I would, however, here wish to protest against the supposed 
materialistic tendency of scientific studies. It is true that certain 
opinions and professions of belief have been and will be shaken 
by studying the book of nature ; it is also equally true that the 
_ study of nature does not and cannot interfere with the highest 
and noblest aspirations of the mind of man. In the investiga- 
tions of every branch of science we come at last to a point at 
which further inquiry becomes impossible, and we are obliged to 
acknowledge our powerlessness and insignificance. We can see 
and learn concerning only the minutest fraction of the great 
whole of nature, and it is with this minute fraction alone that we 
as men of science are concerned. 
In inaugurating, as we are now doing, a scientific depart- 
ment of an institution devoted to the higher education, it 
may be well to glance for a moment at the preliminary 
stages through which, in the subject of chemical science, 
with which alone I am competent to deal, a student mist 
pass to reach the portal of original inquiry. And first let me 
gratefully acknowledge the help which we have received in 
endeavouring to find a habitation for a school of chemistry 
aspiring to be worthy of the intellectual vigour and manufactur- 
ing power of the great district of which this city is the centre— 
help not only of the necessary, and therefore valuable kind of 
pecuniary assistance generously and willingly given, but help of a 
personal, and therefore still more valuable kind, without which 
the funds would haye been useless, and our scheme for the foun- 
dation of a really great scientific institution would have fallen to 
the ground. The results of this help you now see in this large 
theatre, and in the splendidly fitted laboratories behind it. They 
are, I say it with confidence, the most spacious and best 
arranged laboratories in Great Britain, and will be found, I 
believe, second to none in the world for convenience and suita- 
bility to their proposed uses. It now remains for my colleagues 
and myself to discharge our debt ; to show that the confidence 
which has been placed in us has not been misplaced, and to 
prove year by year that the goods we furnish in the shape of 
soundly and scientifically educated chemists bring a return 
worthy of the capital, both in specie and intellect, which has 
been expended upon their production. 
Our mode of instruction in the principles of chemistry is of 
two distinct kinds: (1), by lectures, accompanied by experi- 
mental illustration by the lecturers, as well as by recapitulatory 
and tutorial classes ; and (2), by experimental work practically 
carried out by the student himself in the laboratory. Both of 
these means of obtaining command over the facts and principles 
of our science should be carried on simultaneously ; the lectures 
serve as giving a general view of the main features of the sub- 
ject ; the laboratory work brings the student into direct contact 
with Nature, and gives him an insight into her processes, which 
can only thus be obtained. In the lecture room the student 
forms an idea, as in a panorama, of the general appearance of 
the country ; but it is in the laboratory, as in a walk through a 
given district, that he first learns what the land he is travelling 
through is really like. And although we know that we must 
spend much time and labour if we go on foot, we know that we 
shall be rewarded by a vivid and lasting impression, and one 
which may perhaps give a new colour to our lives. It is thus 
with the study of chemistry ; the laboratory is the place where 
the details of the science are really mastered ; and a young man 
must not expect to become a competent chemiSt without having 
passed several years of hard and unremitting toil in solving the 
sometimes tedious and difficult problems which are presented to 
him. 
It is not necessary for me here to detail to you the particulars 
of the course of instruction which all students of chemistry, as 
arule, go through. Suffice it to say that this course begins at 
the very A B C of our subject; and, if I am freely to speak my 
mind, I would say that in general I do not object to take stu- 
dents who know nothing of the science. We first seek to give 
him some notion of the kind of phenomena with which the 
science is concerned ; we then begin to train him in manipula- 
tive dexterity, and, by a graduated series of examples and exer- 
cises, make him acquainted with the fixed and exact quantitative 
laws upon which our science is founded. From the beginning 
we introduce a strict system of note-taking and of carrying out 
simple chemical calculations, so as to insure a firm foundation 
for the subsequent building. The student then begins to learn 
the properties of the more commonly occurring amongst the 
sixty-three elementary bodies of which (as far as we are yet aware) 
the material world is built up, and properties of their compounds, 
He commences the study of qualitative analysis, and at last he 
is able to tell you the nature of the exact constituents of any 
substance, whether of earth, of air, or of sea, of mineral, vege- 
table, or animal nature, which you may ask him to examine. 
He has accomplished a great work, and if he has carried his 
examinations as far as the reactions of the rare elements (as is 
usually the case with all our students), he is master of the first 
or qualitative stage of the science, Next the question arises as 
to the quantity of each constituent present in the given sub- 
stance, and theseccnd or quantitative stage is reached. This is 
necessarily a longer and more difficult matter than his preceding 
task. Not only must the choice of methods of separation and 
estimation be successful, so as to employ good ones and eschew 
the bad or inaccurate ones, but skill in manipulation must be 
forthcoming. All depends on accuracy and care in performing 
delicate operations, such as weighing, collecting and washing 
precipitates, and a hundred other manipulations, and the results 
of many days’ work may be in a moment lost by cne false step 
or one careless action. 
In all this preliminary work the hand is gradually trained to 
perform the various mechanical operations, the eye is at the 
same time taught to observe with care, and the mind to draw 
the logical inferences from the observed phenomena. Habits of 
independent thought and ideas of free inquiry are thus at once 
inculcated ; no authority besides that of the senses is appealed 
to, and no preconceived notions have to be obeyed ; the student 
creates for himself his own material for observation, and draws 
his own conclusion therefrom. If he is inaccurate either in his 
manipulation, his observations, or in his conclusion, nature soon 
finds him out. Something or other is out of order, and he is 
sent back with the task of finding out his mistake for himself, 
Not until all this has been accomplished (and very often not 
then) is the student fit to think about original research. Before 
he can successfully grapple with new difficulties he must have 
learned to overcome the old ones. His hand must be dexterous 
and accustomed to meet all the mechanical difficulties which 
invariably accompany such investigations ; his eye must not only 
be open to what he expects to see, but, what is far more difficult, 
it must quickly seize upon the occurrence of phenomena which 
he does o# expect to see ; his mind, working, perhaps, with a 
leading thought—for without this, original work is almost 
impossible—must be free in its power to grasp any new combi- 
nation of ideas to which the phenomena may suddenly and 
unexpectually give rise, and be willing at once to relinquish a 
favourite and cherished hypothesis if the results of experiment 
prove that hypothesis to be erroneous. This dexterity of hand, 
quickness and keenness of sight, and pliability of mind must in 
greater or lesser degree be possessed by all who would undertake 
original scientific work. I do not mention as a preliminary 
necessity a competent theoretical knowledge of the phenomena 
and laws of our science, because, though this is a matter of 
course, many having this knowledge will altogether fail, owing 
to their not possessing the other requisites. 
In carrying out, then, even the simplest original investiga- 
tion, some or all of these requirements are needed. In 
addition, other faculties are called into play by the very fact 
of the phenomena being in part at least new. Not only do we 
ourselves not know what to expect, but nobody can tell us what 
will happen. We are exploring new country, and our outlook 
must therefore be doubly sharp ; we must be prepared for every 
possible event, and ready to meet every change of fortune. We 
must, like a traveller, not be discouraged by reverses, but 
patiently persevere in our course, feeling convinced that the path, 
which for a long time may be a thorny one, must in due course 
lead us to a point from which we shall enjoy an extended view 
of the surrounding country, and be able to trace the tortuous 
paths by which the elevation was reached. The faculties which 
are called into active operation in the prosecution of experimental 
scientific research are, in fact, exactly those which are valuable 
in the every-day occurrences of life, the proper employment of 
which leads to success in whatever channel they may happen to 
be directed. A man who has learnt how successfully to meet 
the difficulties and overcome the obstacles which occur in every 
experimental investigation, is able to grapple with difficulties and 
obstacles of a similar character with which he comes in contact 
in after-life. 
(To be continued.) 
Pinal 
oO pe *y 
%2 
