Page images
PDF
EPUB

9. DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE.

Although the University has not at present undertaken to develop teaching in the technical applications of the Natural Sciences, and has not therefore a practical Medical School, any more than a practical Engineering School, yet it has been thought desirable to form in the Museum for certain purposes a Medical Department, as being necessary for a philosophical view of Biological Science. These purposes include generally the study-(1) of the ways in which the healthy structures of living beings become unhealthy; (2) of the modes of preventing the tendencies to ill-health, or death; (3) of the principles by which injuries may be repaired; and (4) of the several ways in which life is brought to a close.

The arrangements for these ends, though for the reason just stated much smaller than those of a Medical School, include—

1. A small Sanitary Laboratory.—In this are made Sanitary Analyses for either public or for private purposes, at an average fee of £1 15. for a Qualitative, and £2 25. for a Quantitative analysis. Pupils are taken in this department. Demonstrations on Adulterated Food are given, and the chemical and microscopic methods for detecting the adulterations explained by the Professor or his Deputy.

2. A Pathological Museum, consisting of about 1000 specimens, and comprising the collection of Schroeder van der Kolk, that of the present Regius Professor, and others.

This is divided into two parts, arranged according to the divisions of the Hunterian Collection. The first part illustrates the general forms of disease, and the second local diseases. It aims at showing these processes in animals generally as well as in man, and so is to be counted a continuation of the Biological series in the Court, also arranged on the plan of the Hunterian Collection.

The collection is catalogued, and may be studied by leave of the Professor. Pathological Books are to be found either in the Pathological Museum itself, or in the Radcliffe Library.

3. An Instrument Room.—In this apartment are being collected instruments of Diagnosis, Ophthalmoscopes, Optometers, the Phacoidoscope, Laryngoscopes, Sphygmographs, &c.

The room can be darkened for the use of these reflecting

instruments. Members of the University desiring to use them are to apply to the Professor or to his Deputy.

In this room the Radcliffe Artist may be consulted as to instruction in Anatomical Drawing, Natural History Drawing, or the mode of drawing Diagrams.

4. The Office of the Regius Professor of Medicine.-The Regius Professor attends on certain days, which are announced in the University Gazette, to advise members of the University on subjects connected with the department.

5. From time to time the Professor takes members of the University to inspect localities in town or country, for instruction in Sanitary defects and remedies. He also gives Clinical Instruction at the Infirmary on two days in the week during Term.

§ 6. The Botanic Garden.

The Botanic Garden, formerly known as the Physic Garden, was founded in the year 1622 through the munificence of Lord Danvers. It was the first piece of public ground set apart in this country for the scientific study of plants.

The material now existing in them for instruction or research may be described under the three following heads:—

1. The Garden, containing collections of living plants.

2. The Herbarium, containing collections of dried plants. 3. The Museum, containing collections of such parts of plants as cannot conveniently be incorporated with the Herbarium. 1. The Garden.—The Gardens, which are open from seven in the morning till sunset, contain collections of both hardy and tender plants. Of the former, those within the walls are for the most part arranged in beds illustrative of the natural orders; but on the plot of ground outside the walls, facing the Merton meadows, about 500 of the more common wild flowers have been arranged in rows to illustrate the British genera. This Generic Garden has been laid out with the view to assist the student, who, upon application to the Professor, will have leave to gather for himself such specimens as he may need, and may be further supplied with special opportunities for carrying on his examination of them.

The more tender plants are preserved in conservatories. These are not open to the public, on account of the narrowness of the passages leading through them; but any student, upon application, will have the same opportunities afforded him for

study in them as are mentioned above in connection with the collection of hardy plants.

2. The Herbarium.-The collections contained in the Herbarium may be classed under three heads.

(a) The Modern British Collection; (B) The Modern General Collection; (7) The Ancient Collection.

(a) The Modern British Herbarium is now completed, and is especially intended as an herbarium of reference for students. Not only have good typical specimens of each species been selected, but seeds also and the more minute parts are, in most cases, preserved in capsules, from which the student may be supplied. Special appliances are also offered him for their maceration and dissection.

(B) The Modern General Herbarium, the noble gift of the late Mr. Fielding, is, after those at Kew and the British Museum, one of the largest and most valuable in the country. It is now cleaned and rendered safe from the further attacks of insects: it is also being rapidly arranged, and all the post-Linnean collections are being incorporated with it.

(7) The Ancient Collections include all such as have been made previous to the time of Linnæus. Among these may be reckoned those of Morison, Sherard, Dillenius, and Dubois. All these are kept separate, and serve to illustrate the state of botanical science in the times in which they were made.

3. The Museum, although containing at one time a great number of valuable and useful specimens, is unfortunately of little service to the student, owing in part to the excessive darkness of the room in which the cases are placed, and in part to the lamentable destruction of many of the specimens through the agency of insects.

A course of lectures on Botany is given every Term. In the autumn and spring the subject treated of is the Minute Anatomy and Physiology of Plants. These lectures consist mainly of a series of practical demonstrations. Each student is required to come furnished with a compound microscope, and to work out for himself the different points under consideration.

In the summer Term the subject treated of is Morphological and Systematic Botany.

On account of the Gardens having no lecture-room attached to them, the lectures are given either in the Herbarium or at the Professor's residence.

§ 7. College Scientific Institutions.

At the following Colleges there are Scientific Institutions, accompanied with scientific teaching, in addition to the Institutions which are common to all members of the University, and which have been described above.

At Merton a Reading-room has been opened, containing a few physical instruments, and a small library for the use of students. In this room lectures on Theoretical Chemistry are delivered by the College Tutor. These lectures are free to members of the College, and by arrangement to members of Magdalen and Jesus Colleges.

At Magdalen there is a laboratory with an efficient Curator, and also a library for the use of its Natural Science students. The laboratory is a block of buildings exclusively devoted to the teaching of science. The lecture-room is fitted up with ordinary appliances for chemical demonstration, and contains, in addition, a quantity of physical apparatus. One room is devoted to the geological collection of the late Professor Daubeny, and this, together with a large collection of minerals, is well catalogued and arranged for the use of the student. A second room contains a number of instruments connected with meteorology, and on the roof is placed an achromatic telescope, with a 5 inch objectglass, equatorially mounted, and with tangent screw motions. series of daily meteorological observations are taken and recorded, including readings from a standard barometer, maximum and minimum temperature, dew-point, maximum solar radiation, rainfall, &c. A large upper room is fitted up as a reading-room for students, and contains a collection of specimens illustrating Comparative Osteology, a Zoological series with dissections in illustration, together with microscopes and microscopic preparations. The course of instruction given by the College Tutor comprises

A

(1) A course of lectures intended for candidates for Honours in the Natural Science School.

(2) A course of elementary lectures on Chemical Physics, intended for beginners, i. e. (a) for those who are not necessarily candidates for the Natural Science School, as a means of general education, (b) as an introduction to the advanced course.

Each course of lectures combines formal teaching with attention to the requirements of each candidate in private.

The laboratory is open for the use of students at all reasonable hours, the intention of the College being that each student should receive the same help and attention in Science from his College Tutor as that enjoyed by the students in Classics and Mathematics.

At Christ Church there is a large laboratory, in which the Lee's Readers in Physics and Chemistry lecture on their respective subjects on alternate mornings. The laboratory is open, without charge for teaching or apparatus, to all members of Christ Church.

A small Physical and Chemical Library is in course of collection, from which books may be taken out by the Undergraduates.

The Lee's Reader in Anatomy lectures in his room at the Museum, and has joint rights with the Linacre Professor to the use of the anatomical specimens belonging to Dr. Lee's Trustees, which are at present deposited there.

The senior Lee's Reader is Tutor to the men who are reading Natural Science, who are transferred from their Classical Tutor to him as soon as they have passed Moderations.

All three Christ Church Readers admit to their lectures members of other Colleges on payment of a fee.

§ 8. Art Collections.

1. The University Galleries contain (1) a collection of original drawings by Michael Angelo and Raffaelle, of which a full account has been published by Mr. J. C. Robinson (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1870); (2) a collection of drawings by J. M. W. Turner, R.A.; (3) a small collection of paintings by English and Early Italian Masters; (4) the original models of the statues of Sir F. Chantrey; (5) the Douce collection of early prints, chiefly German and Italian. They also contain the Pomfret and Castellani collections, which are mentioned below, p. 56.

The Galleries are open without fee to all members of the University, and to persons introduced by them, daily throughout the year (except during a short interval in the Long Vacation), from 1 to 1, and from 2 to 4 P.M. On Thursdays they are open to the general public, without the necessity of an introduction.

« PreviousContinue »