PROGRESS OF CIIE.MISTilY. 
625 
Crookes did not I’efer the consideration of his claims, on the 
first opportunity, to a jury of gentlenieii formed for exa¬ 
mining products of manufacturing industry at the National 
Exhibition of 1862. I have felt it my duty to allude pub¬ 
licly to this proceeding, because it occurred in a report of a 
commission of the French Academy, published by the order 
of that distinguished body. Before proceeding from the 
scientific and intellectual progress of chemistry, I must beg 
leave to refer briefly to the educational efforts of the progress. 
Little, indeed, would our conquests over nature avail us if 
they are only known to the systematic cultivators of science, 
and only used by them; and unless the popular dissemination 
of knowledge keeps pace with its extension, the chief fruits 
of that extension will be lost. It would be unjust to deny 
that some important steps have been taken of late years by 
various governing bodies in this country towards giving to 
experimental science a position in national education; but 
these steps are only the beginning of a reform in education 
which must go much further in order to be 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 Government appointments, civil 
and military; but the small value which the framers of the 
schemes placed upon these sciences, compared to mathe¬ 
matics, is but too plainly shown by the small number of 
marks wliich they assign to the utmost recognised proficiency 
in them; so that the effect of the recognition is tantamount 
to saying —We can^t help acknowdedging 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 recognised the necessity of a thorough knowledge 
of chemistry, but many of them require the knowledge to be 
acquired in the lecture-room, and partly also in the laboratoiy. 
The University of London is expressly to be noticed for the 
beneficial influence which it has exerted in this direction in 
its medical examinations; but more particularly for the 
institution of new degrees of bachelor and doctor of science, 
which acknowledges, for the first time in this country, the 
physical and natural sciences as entitled to equal recognition 
with classical and mathematical studies for purposes of 
general education. These influences have, no doubt, contri¬ 
buted materiallv to the introduction of chemical instruction, 
and even of practical chemistry, into junior schools, which 
has been going on so extensively of late years. It is, how- 
bo we ver, consolatory to observe that a more powerful in- 
