8 
MASON COLLEGE, BIRMINGHAM. 
In this connection it may not be without interest to devote a 
few lines to a description of the scheme which one such Technical 
School, and that of no small importance—namely, the Victoria 
Institute of the City Council of Worcester—has accepted from us 
for the purpose of, at the same time, amplifying and supplementing 
its “South Kensington” work. The idea of the scheme is that 
the principles of the most important sciences shall, from time to 
time, be taught upon what we may call “ University lines.” It 
being assumed that an attempt shall be made to secure the 
continuous attendance of a student for three years, the following 
sequence of subjects has been arranged :— 
First Year: —(1) Principles of Chemistry. 
(2) Principles of Botany and Vegetable Physio¬ 
logy. 
Second Year: —(8) Principles of Physics. 
(4) Principles of Zoology and Animal Physiology. 
Third Year :—(5 and 2) Principles of Geology and Physiography. 
(6) Correlation of the Sciences. 
(1) Principles of Chemistry (beginning of second 
sequence). 
With one exception, all of these courses are of twenty lectures, 
and, if the sequence be continued, Chemistry and Physics would 
come in alternate years, and the others triennially. With practically 
equal advantage, it would be possible for a student to commence in 
any year. The proposed third year course on the “ Correlation of 
the Sciences ” will be an attempt in about ten lectures to show 
how the various branches of science the student has studied are 
connected into an organic whole ; and should, if properly thought 
out, form a most attractive and instructive conclusion. 
Whether the Birmingham University Extension Lecture 
Scheme will ever attain the dimensions of those which I mentioned 
in commencing this sketch must be left for decision in the hands 
of the future. This much, however, is certain ; that it cannot 
but be to the mutual advantage of our vast Midland population, and 
of the young but ambitious College which forms its intellectual 
centre, that the rubbing together of mind and mind, the personal 
January, 1893. 
