all of which are accessible without fee to all members of the University. Students of Physical Science who are not members of the University are admitted on the introduction of a Professor; and strangers from a distance, who wish merely to view the Museum, are admitted daily, between 2 P.M. and 4 P.M., on recording their names in the Visitors' Book.

The separate Departments are described in the following pages.

1. DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS.

This Department consists of Lecture-rooms in which the Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy and the Savilian Professor of Geometry give lectures, the former upon Applied, the latter usually upon Pure, Mathematics.

2. DEPARTMENT OF ASTRONOMY.

The University Observatory was completed in November, 1875, and is maintained at the expense of the University. It contains a refracting telescope of 124 inches aperture and 15 feet focal length, furnished with every known contrivance for diminishing the physical labour of the observer and conducing to the accuracy of his work. It is furnished with spectroscopes and other necessary adjuncts.

The Observatory contains two reflecting telescopes of 13 inches aperture and of rare excellence, presented to the University by the munificence of Warren De La Rue, Esq., F.R.S., Hon. D.C.L. There are also several other instruments of less magnitude provided for the use and instruction of students.

This Observatory is devoted partly to the purposes of academical instruction, and partly is intended for the furtherance of original research in the various branches of Astronomical Science.

The Professor devotes at least two evenings of each week, during Term time, to the instruction of University students in Practical and Philosophical Astronomy. Other lectures are also given on subjects connected with the Lunar and Planetary theories.

The building and instruments are open on all week-days to the inspection of members of the University, between the hours of II A.M. and 2 P.M.

3. DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS.

The Clarendon Laboratory attached to the University Museum is specially designed to afford facilities for the study of Physics. It contains the Physical Cabinet, a Lecture Theatre adapted for lectures requiring experimental illustration, and several laboratories respectively devoted to the different branches of Physics, viz. Acoustics, Heat, Electricity, Magnetism, and Optics. The instruction given is of two kinds.

First, Lecture courses, intended either to supplement the instruction given in the laboratories, or to teach students the general principles of Physics.

In general, two lectures are delivered by the Professor in each week during the Michaelmas and Hilary Terms, and other courses of lectures are given by the Demonstrators. These lectures are, when necessary, illustrated by experiments, and are designed to make as little demand as possible on the mathematical knowledge of the student; an acquaintance with the simplest elements of Geometry and Algebra being in most cases all that is required.

Upon first entering the class of the Professor of Experimental Philosophy the student is required to pay a fee of £1; he is then free during his University career to attend all ordinary lectures given by the Professor.

Secondly, the Laboratory course, intended for students aiming at Honours in Physics in the School of Natural Science, and for those requiring a thorough knowledge of the use of physical apparatus, and of the methods of accurate measurement and physical research.

In the Physical Laboratory the students work singly or in small groups, according to the nature of the instrument or method under consideration. Instruction is given to the student in the nature and use of the instruments employed, and each is then required himself to carry out experiments, or to make exact measurements suggested to him, under the superintendence of the Professor and Demonstrators.

The Laboratory is open daily from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M., but it is usual for a student to work in the Laboratory only on alternate

days, and the time required on any occasion varies from two to six hours, according to the nature of the work in hand.

The fee for working three days a week is £3 per Term, no additional expense being incurred by a student, unless by inattention or carelessness he should injure the apparatus entrusted to him.

It is essential that a student in the Physical Laboratory should possess some knowledge of Mathematics, and the greater this knowledge, the greater will be the range of physical study open to him; it is also most desirable that before entering the Laboratory the student should have acquired some knowledge of general Physics, such for instance as is represented by the elementary portions of Jamin's Cours de Physique.

If, upon coming to the University, a student intends to become a candidate for Honours in Physics, it is generally desirable that he should give his attention mainly to the study of Mathematics and Mechanics until he has passed Moderations, merely acquiring a general knowledge of Physics and Chemistry by attending the experimental lectures. He should then devote his whole time to the study of works on Physics and Chemistry and to working in the Laboratories.

As however the most desirable course to pursue depends so much on the extent of the student's knowledge on entering the University, it is recommended that each student intending to give special attention to Physics should, as soon as possible after coming into residence, consult the Professor of Experimental Philosophy, or any other teacher of Physics in the University.

4. DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY.

This department comprises a lecture-room fitted with appliances for experimental illustration, and two principal working laboratories, the larger of which is fitted with sixty-four workingbenches, together with demonstration-rooms, subsidiary laboratories, balance-rooms, furnace-rooms, store-rooms, &c.

The oral instruction consists of two general lectures and one demonstration, or less formal lecture, and two courses of lectures on the elements of organic and inorganic chemistry, given weekly. For attendance on these lectures no fee is required.

The principal laboratories are open daily from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. during Term-time, for instruction in Fractical Chemistry. The fee for each Term is, for students working three days in the week, £3; for students working every day, £5. The ordinary work of the student in the laboratory consists in the practice of qualitative and quantitative analysis, and the preparation of Chemical compounds; and in particular of those methods of analysis, of which a knowledge is required from candidates for Honours in the School of Natural Science who make Chemistry their special subject.

Opportunities are moreover afforded in the different laboratories for the experimental investigation of special subjects of chemical enquiry.

5. DEPARTMENT OF MINERALOGY.

(1) Mineralogy. The specimens, mostly obtained by gifts to the University from Dr. Simmons of Christ Church, and others, are arranged in table-cases in the order of their chemical constitution. Beginning with meteoric iron, the series is continued through metals and combinations of metals, sulphides, chlorides, and fluorides; a large variety of oxides, carbonates and silicates succeeds, followed by sulphates, phosphates, &c. The series closes with combustible substances, including jet and amber. The specimens are labelled, and may be studied by help of Miller's Mineralogy, and other works in the Radcliffe Library.

(2) Lithology. To assist in the study of rocks and associations of minerals—a subject common to Mineralogy and Geology-there is a case of Vesuvian lavas and minerals, and two tables of rock specimens selected to show crystalline segregations, veins, faults, cleavage, metamorphism, and other varieties of structure. A convenient book for these subjects is Cotta's Gesteinslehre, translated by Lawrence.

6. DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY.

The collections include fossils from the whole series of British strata, with selections from foreign localities. Of the original collection anciently in the Ashmolean Museum, and described by Lhwyd, only a few specimens can be recognised; a great part

of those now exhibited were bequeathed to the University by the late Rev. Dr. Buckland.

The general collection, including fossils of all the formations from the Cambrian to the Chalk, is placed in vertical cases in the lower East Corridor. They are arranged in two series-the Paleozoic and the Mesozoic; and in each series the fossils are placed in the order of natural affinity, so that the student may follow any one selected group of forms-as Brachiopoda, or Cephalopoda, or Fishes--through the whole extent of Palæozoic or Mesozoic times. The Cainozoic fossils will be found in the upper East Corridor, where also, placed in vertical cases, is the large series of mammalian remains collected in the bone-caves of England and the Continent by Dr. Buckland.

The special collection of organic remains from the several formations in the neighbourhood of Oxford is placed in separate cases between the columns in the West, South, and East Corridors. They range from beds of Pleistocene age down to the Lias.

The collection of the great Saurian remains of the Oxford district will be found in the glass cases on the side of the rightband Central Avenue; and the large series of Saurian remains from the Lias, presented to the University by Mr. Hawkins, are placed in the South Corridor and at the end of the open Court.

The specimens are in greater part named and labelled. There is besides a MS. Catalogue of the general collection, corresponding with numbers on the specimens, which may be consulted on application to the Professor of Geology.

(A guide-book is published, which gives particulars of the arrangement, position, and locality of the specimens, and indicates those which are most worthy of notice.)

Lectures, without fee, are given twice a week during Michaelmas and Hilary Terms, and informal instruction and field excursions during the summer Term.

7. DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY.

Specimens illustrative of the great divisions of the animal kingdom (excepting Arachnida, Insecta, &c.) are placed in the middle of the Court, labelled and catalogued. At present the space for mammalia is very restricted. Each natural division of birds from various regions of the earth is placed, as far as