80 REPORT—18638. 
effectual. In illustration of what has been done, I may mention the admission of 
chemistry and physics into the list of subjects of examination for various Govern- 
ment appointments, civil and military; but the small value which the framers of 
the schemes placed upon these sciences, compared to mathematics, is but too plainly 
shown by the small number of marks which they assign to the utmost recognized 
proficiency in them; so that the effect of the recognition is tantamountto saying, 
“We can’t help acknowledging these sciences, but we want to encourage the 
study of them as little as possible.” The medical corporations, who influence the 
studies of the rising generation of practitioners by their examinations, have not 
only recognized the necessity of a Lite knowledge of chemistry, but many of 
them require the knowledge to be acquired not only in the lecture-room, but partly 
also in the laboratory. The University of London is specially to be noticed for the 
beneficial influence which it has exerted in this direction in its medical examina- 
tions ; but more particularly for the institution of the new degrees of Bachelor and 
Doctor of Science, which acknowledge, for the first time in this country, the phy- 
sical and natural sciences as entitled to equal recognition with classical and mathe- 
matical studies for purposes of general education. ‘These influences have no doubt 
contributed materially to the introduction of chemical instruction, and even of 
ractical chemistry, into junior schools, which has been going on so extensively of 
ate years. It is, however, consolatory to observe that a more powerful influence 
than any of these is at work, viz. the popular appreciation of its real value, gra- 
dually raising physical science to the prominent place in national education which 
it is destined to occupy. 
If education is intended to prepare young people for a life of usefulness, in which 
their various faculties may be employed to the benefit of their fellow-men, and con- 
sequently to their own, there can be no doubt of the value of teaching them to 
observe, to recollect, to arrange the phenomena of the physical world, and to apply 
the knowledge and skill thus acquired to practical purposes. No phenomena that 
can be brought within the observation o aterybouy by inexpensive experiments 
are so simple in their nature, no reasonings more definite and tangible, or more 
easily controlled by special observations, than those of chemistry; and the science 
affords, elon scope for a more thorough training of the various faculties of the 
mind than can be supplied in schools by any other means. 
Among the chemical arts much has been doing, but, as usual, in a quiet, unde- 
monstrative way. First and foremost among improvements I must mention the 
introduction into one manufacture after another, of those admirable furnacesinvented 
by Mr. Siemens, and generally known as regenerative furnaces. Whether we 
consider them from the point of view of the economy of fuel, or whether as atford- 
ing the means of attaining temperatures beyond the range of other furnaces, there 
can be no doubt of the immense value of this invention. Heat is the great source 
of power in almost all our dealings with inorganic matter, and I have not the 
slightest doubt that the power over heat given by these regenerative furnaces will 
revolutionize many a chemical art. 
The manufacture of iron, and its subsequent treatment for the removal of im- 
purities, has been of late years the subject of many experiments. Various plans 
have been proposed for avoiding the injurious effects of the mineral impurities of 
our coal, by using gas for the reduction of the iron ores. In this country, however, 
the manufacture of cast iron is carried on in such vast quantities that changes in 
the processes must meet with great resistance. The laborious and expensive process 
of puddling hitherto adopted for burning out the carbon from cast iron is being 
gradually superseded by one or other of the following :—either by treating the molten 
pigs with oxide of iron until the carbon is removed as carbonic oxide, or by Besse- 
mer’s process of blowing air through the molten cast iron. In either case it is de- 
sirable to add some carbon to the malleable iron in order to render it more fusible, 
and for this purpose the best material is the manganiferous carburet of iron, known 
by the name of “ eemaery of which enough is used to make a low steel of 
about 4 per cent. of carbon. 
One of the most interesting novelties in metallurgy is the manufacture of alumi- 
nium, now carried on for the sake chiefly of its alloy with copper, by the distinguished 
gentleman who holds the office of Mayor of Newcastle. The mechanical properties 
