331 
M. Fischer's Memoir of the Lfe of Klaproth. 
the Ministry of the Interior. He was also a member of the Per- 
petual Court Commission for Medicines. His lectures, too, pro- 
cured for him several municipal situations. For as soon as the 
public became acquainted with his great chemical acquirements, 
he was permitted to give yearly, two private courses of lectures on 
chemistry, one for the officers of the Royal Artillery Corps, the 
other for persons not connected with the army, who wished to ac- 
complish themselves for some practical employment. Both of 
these lectures assumed afterwards a municipal character. The for- 
mer led to his appointment as Professor of the Artillery Acade- 
my, instituted at Tempelhoff, and after its dissolution to his situa- 
tion as Professor in the Royal War School. The other lecture 
procured for him the Professorship of Chemistry in the Royal 
Mining Institute. On the establishment of the present Uni- 
versity, Klaproth's lectures became those of the University, 
and he himself was appointed ordinary Professor of Chemis- 
try, and member of the Academical Senate. Besides these 
public lectures, our departed friend was an active member from 
1797 to 1810 , of a small scientific society, which met yearly, 
during a few weeks, for the purpose of discussing the more re- 
condite mysteries of the science, and of which all the members 
still retain lively recollections. 
I cannot resist the inclination which I feel to repeat in this 
place, a remark which Klaproth used to make respecting his pre- 
lections, and which he repeated more than once to the author of 
this memoir, as well as to several other friends. As long as his 
lectures were honoured by the presence of students only, they 
were numerously attended and earnestly listened to ; but when 
the State began to pay for a part of the students, a considera- 
ble number of these began forthwith to take a very irregular 
and diminished interest in the lectures* 
It is certainly exceedingly proper that the State should take 
an interest in the scientific accomplishment of its subjects, by 
the erection of schools of different kinds ; and it is still more 
proper, that it should afford to those who have not the means, 
the possibility of an enlightened education ; but, perhaps, it would 
be most desirable in cases of this kind, not to release any of the 
scholars from the duty of paying for instruction, but rather to 
