108  PHARMACEUTICAL  NOTES  OF  TRAVEL. 
lecturing  at  this  late  period  in  the  summer, — the  Professor  of 
Botany,  at  the  Botanical  Garden,  which  I  found  a  pleasant  place 
to  visit,  but  did  not  hear  a  lecture ;  and  the  Professor  of 
Chemistry,  who  holds  his  lectures  in  a  building  near  the  Uni- 
versity, containing  the  practical  laboratory.  This  place  I  found 
one  of  great  interest,  the  arrangements  for  instruction  in  practi- 
cal chemistry  being  more  than  usually  complete,  and  each  table 
having,  all  the  necessary  apparatus  and  material,  even  including 
a  separate  basin  and  hydrant. 
The  importance  of  Summer  instruction  in  Practical  Chemistry 
seems  to  be  recognised  both  here  and  in  Edinburgh,  although  in 
the  latter  place,  the  laboratory  was  closed  during  my  recent  so- 
journ, perhaps  on  account  of  the  lamented  death  of  Dr.  Gregory, 
whose  place  had  but  recently  been  filled.  I  heard  the  last  lec- 
ture of  the  Summer  course  at  Glasgow,  the  plan  of  instruction 
being  novel  and,  I  believe,  peculiar  to  this  institution.  Two 
courses  are  conducted  simultaneously,  each  class  being  limited 
to  thirty.  Upon  narrow  shelves  or  tables  in  front  of  each  row  of 
seats  are  arranged  for  each  occasion,  the  necessary  apparatus 
for  experimenting  upon  the  particular  subject  of  the  lecture, 
four  or  five  students  operating  together,  so  that  to  a  class  of 
thirty,  six  or  eight  sets  of  apparatus  are  required.  The  exer- 
cises commenced  with  a  general  examination  upon  the  subject  of 
the  previous  lecture,  after  which  the  lecturer  introduced  the  sub- 
ject of  Carbonic  Oxide,  explaining  the  method  of  preparing  it, 
and  the  rationale,  w7hile  his  assistants  at  the  counter,  and  the 
several  groups  of  students,  each  with  a  retort  and  small  pneu- 
matic trough,  proceeded  to  generate  and  collect  the  gas.  He 
then  explained  its  properties  and  the  methods  of  testing  it, 
which  were  verified  by  the  students  with  their  several  specimens. 
This  method,  though  it  has  its  advantages,  seems  imperfectly 
adapted  to  supercede  laboratory  instruction ;  the  attention  of 
the  students  is  too  much  divided  between  the  explanations  of 
the  teacher,  and  the  details  of  the  experiment,  while  a  single 
error  in  manipulation  by  any  one  student,  leading  to  a  slight 
explosion,  the  fracture  of  a  retort,  or  other  accident,  by  dis- 
tracting the  attention  of  the  whole  class  may  break  the  thread 
of  the  instruction,  and  to  some  extent,  defeat  the  object  in 
view,    This  idea  is  the  result  of  a  single  observation  ;  it  is  cer- 
