A letter to the ... Lord Provost, magistrates, and council, patrons of the University of Edinburgh, on the present state of practical chemistry : with remarks on ... a pamphlet by Dr Anderson / by D. B. Reid.

Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the ... Lord Provost, magistrates, and council, patrons of the University of Edinburgh, on the present state of practical chemistry : with remarks on ... a pamphlet by Dr Anderson / by D. B. Reid. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    attendance to all who had ever attended my Classes in the Col- lege. This, my Lord and Gentlemen, is as utterly incorrect as it is possible for any statement to be. I announced in my bill, that those who had attended my Practical Classes, either in the High School Yards, or afterwards in the College, would be admitted to my Lectures on the same terms as those attend- ing the Practical Class during the winter. This Dr Ander- son construes in a very different manner. JVIY LORD AND GENTLEMEN, I now beg leave to be permitted to lay before you the views I have been led to adopt with respect to the teaching of Che- mistry. I have no hesitation in affirming, and feel confident that every inquiring mind will agree with me, on investigating the subject, that the progress of science, and the wants of society, imperatively demand that the present system of chemical edu- cation shall be thoroughly revised, and put on a footing alto- gether ne;w. In a science like Chemistry, altogether based on experiment, and so eminently practical, it is universally acknowledged, that it is to the Practical Course alone that we must look for the ac- quisition of that knowledge that will fit the student for enter- ing with advantage upon professional avocations. As a means of information, in every thing that is purely theoretical, now that the press teems with works of first-rate excellence in every department of science, it may be safely affirmed, that the last good book is as likely to be of as much use to the student as any course of lectures ; for, though it may want the interest which a viva voce communication may present, it has this very great advantage, it can be turned over and compared again and again without any additional fee. Put neither books nor lec- tures can supply the place of a teacher, whose main duty is to attend to the discipline of his pupils, to exercise them in such a way as may call forth the activity of their minds, and fit them, as far as possible, for the duties of their future stations. In a course of lectures on Chemistry, the experimental illus- trations, and the authority of the teacher, are the circum-