On Technical Education. 
549 
1883.] 
cupboards were rifled of necessary apparatus. You will 
readily conceive how much work it was possible to get through 
during the hour and a half, when most of the necessaries were to 
be soiLght for and cleaned or filled ere anything could be done. 
It was not in the teachers’ power to mend matters, as he 
had nothing to do with the day class.” That laboratory 
certainly was not a favourable place for studying even 
the rudiments of inorganic chemistry, and therefore certainly 
not for learning organic analysis. 
With respect to the number of places fitted up for organic 
analysis in laboratories which are almost exclusively devoted 
to research in organic chemistry, I may state that a friend 
of mine informed me only the other day that when he was 
studying in the leading laboratory in Paris, there were only 
two places. Let me add, further, that evening classes are 
carried on in the Victoria University, Manchester ; in 
looking over their Examination Papers for the Session 
1877-78 (I have not a later Prospectus to refer to), I find no 
such examinations as those the Department state they carry 
out in their schools. From the experience I have had in 
conducting and superintending practical examinations in 
analytical chemistry, I consider that it would not only be 
desirable, but that it is absolutely necessary, for conducting 
them properly that these examinations should be in charge 
of a chemist who has had experience in teaching that branch 
of the Science. Even for the Honours stage in inorganic 
chemistry, scientific supervision is required to direCt the 
examinees in the arranging of their work, so that they do 
not clash by each wanting, for instance, the same piece of 
apparatus at the same time. 
Even if the practical organic examinations could be carried 
out, there nevertheless arrives a time when it is most 
desirable that examinations should not be prolonged, what- 
ever may be the subject examined upon, and whatever may 
be the objeCt of the examination. Mr.Todhunter, in his work 
“The Conflict of Studies,” and other acknowledged authorities, 
strongly insist upon this point. But under the payment on 
result system, even for the teacher to earn the sum of £1 , 
the costly and inefficient examination machinery of the 
Department has to be set in operation ; the plant of know- 
ledge is thus being constantly plucked up to see how it is 
growing; the authors of the system forgetting or disregarding 
that “study requires some amount of peace and quietness, 
without the constant expectation of being called to ‘ stand 
and deliver.’” Would that our senators at least would 
ponder over the following pregnant remarks by Mr. Herbert 
