1 Ocr., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 805 
The building is placed on low piles, giving just sufficient room to get at 
the main gas and water pipes and surface drains, which are all placed under- 
neath the flooring. 
The building, measuring 83 x 44 feet, contains seven rooms and a hall, 
and is throughout lined and ceiled. 
The largest room, 43 x 84 feet, is the students’ laboratory and lecture- 
room, and is fitted with eight long working benches, each having sufficient 
room for four students at practical work, and giving them the use of gas, water, 
sinks, and draught-hoods, cupboard and drawers, with which each place is 
fitted. The draught-hoods are connected by large pipes with the chimney, 
where an artificial draught is created, to take any fumes and vapours away. 
The draught-hoods being low, and connected with the pipes below the floor, do 
not obstruct the view of the lecturer’s platform. For continuous working with 
acids and poisonous vapours, four draught-cupboards, each fitted with a double- 
glazed sliding front, and with gas, water, and waste pipes, are placed on both 
sides of this room. 
The slightly raised lecturer's platform is fitted on its front with a lecturer's 
long bench, provided, of course, with the necessary gas and water taps, 
sinks, and waste pipes, whereas the back is provided with another bench, a 
double-sliding blackboard, and a roomy draught-cupboard. 
A roomy working bench surrounds the whole room on which the apparatus 
in general use, as steam and air drying ovens, water-baths, foot blowpipe, 
burettes, &c., are placed. 
The chemical balances for the use of the students are placed in a small 
lean-to attached to the larger room. Four of Oertling’s long beam chemical 
balances are provided at present, but of course this number will have to be 
increased as soon as the laboratory has to work with a full number of students. 
The students receive lectures on chemistry in their second and third 
year. The practical work is started in the second term of the second year. 
The lectures on elementary chemistry, two and a-half hours per week, are 
illustrated and made interesting by numerous experiments, and are as much as 
possible of a practical nature. In the first year after a general introduction 
into the general principles of physics and chemistry, the non-metallic and 
metallic elements are treated, dwelling principally ou those of importance to 
agriculturists. The second year brings the students to the study of organic 
and agricultural chemistry. ‘The practical course, one afternoon per week, 
teaches the student general chemical manipulations, lets him repeat some of 
the experiments seen in earlier lectures, and he learns some of the simplest but 
still important tests with regard to properties and value of manures, soils, 
water, milk, &c. A short course of qualitative and quantitative analysis is 
given in the last year, and a student showing a preference for chemical work 
may receive permission in this his last year to devote more time to laboratory 
work. 
The room set apart for the departmental analytical and research work is 
placed on the other side of the building, and is, like the lecture-room, well 
ventilated and well lighted, measuring 48 x 18 feet. This room has a working 
bench with different shelves running right round, provided with lead-lined sinks 
in three of the corners. The fourth corner with slate top and iron hood, and 
all the woodwork protected by galvanised iron, is set apart for the working of 
muffle and combustion furnaces. The middle of the room is occupied by two 
large working tables, each with gas and water fittings, sinks on both ends, and 
drawers and cupboards underneath. The room ‘further contains a roomy 
draught-cupboard, and the usual apparatus, as water and air ovens, sandbaths, 
Fletcher's muffle furnace, combustion furnace, condensers, &c., &c. At one 
end of the room a door leads into a small detached room, set apart for special 
