458 Notices of Memoirs—President’s Address to Section C. 
a ton to smelt.” There are reserves of low-grade and refractory 
materials which the fastidious ironmaster cannot now use, since 
competition restricts him to ores of exceptional richness and purity. 
When the latter fail, an unlimited quantity could be made available 
by concentration processes. The vast quantities of iron ores suitable 
for present methods of smelting in Australia, Africa, and India show 
that the practical question is that of supplies to existing iron-working 
localities, and not of the universal failure of iron ores. 
VI. Mining Geology and Education.—The genesis of ores and the 
extent of future ore supplies are intimately connected questions, and 
the recognition of this fact has led to the remarkable growth of 
interest in economic geology. This wider appreciation of the practical 
value of academic geology should, I venture to urge, be recognised 
among teachers by giving a more honoured place to economic geology. 
It was inevitable that until the principles of geology had been 
firmly established, the detailed study of their application should have 
been postponed. Now, however, last century’s work on academic 
geology enables the difficult problems connected with the genesis of 
metalliferous ores to be investigated with illuminating and practically 
useful results. 
British interest in mining education has therefore been revived. Its 
history has been sadly fitful. Lyell,! in 1832, deplored the superiority 
of the Continent in this respect, as ‘‘the art of mining has long been 
taught in France, Germany, and Hungary in scientific institutions 
established for that purpose,” whereas, he continues (quoting from 
the prospectus of a School of Mines in Cornwall, issued in 1825), 
‘‘our miners have been left to themselves, almost without the 
assistance of scientific works in the English language, and without 
any ‘School of Mines,’ to blunder their own way into a certain 
degree of practical skill. The inconvenience of this want of 
system in a country where so much capital is expended, and often 
wasted, in mining adventures, has been well exposed by an eminent 
practical miner.” 
Though the chief British School of Mines made a late start, the 
brilhant originality of its professors soon carried it into the front 
rank; but in an evil day for the Mining School it was united with 
a Normal School for the Training of Teachers, now the Royal College 
of Science, and that school by its great success overwhelmed its older 
ally. Those interested in economic geology therefore welcome the 
recent decision to separate the technical from the educational and 
other courses, while leaving the Schools of Mines and Science 
sufficiently connected for successful co-operation. This policy should 
give such opportunities for the teaching of mining research that we 
may not always have to confess, as at present, that British con- 
tributions to mining geology do not rank as high as those made to 
other branches of our science. 
Regrets are sometimes expressed, and perhaps still more often 
felt, at the tendency in scientific teaching to become more technical ; 
but I, for one, do not fear evil from any such change. It is possible 
1 C. Lyell, ‘‘ Principles of Geology,’’ vol. i, 2nd ed. (1832), p. 63. 
