Page images
PDF
EPUB

I. 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.

This Department is in process of being remodelled, in consequence of a recent grant of the University for the purchase of a refracting telescope of 124 inches aperture, and the erection of a suitable building to contain it. This instrument will be provided with its proper spectroscopes, and all the other modern appliances for researches connected with Astronomical Physics. In addition to this, Mr. Warren De La Rue has offered to the University his well-known reflecting telescope, together with all its valuable appurtenances. Until these instruments are fixed, the Department consists of a small observatory, in which either the Professor or an assistant usually attends every evening, except Sunday, from half-past seven to half-past ten. This observatory contains a good five-feet Transit, with its accessories; a clock, an eighteen-inch Altazimuth, and a small equatorial telescope.

The lectures of the Professor embrace the ninth and eleventh sections of Newton, the Lunar and Planetary Theories, Spherical Astronomy, and the construction and use of Astronomical Instruments. It is also the Professor's desire to give annually a public course of lectures on some branch of Astronomy, in which mathematical terms are as far as possible avoided.

(For a notice of the Radcliffe Observatory, see p. 59.)

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, Acoustics, Heat, Electricity, Magnetism, and Optics.

The instruction given is of two kinds.

First, the Lecture course, intended for students who have not yet made much progress in the study of Physics, and for those who desire a general knowledge of the subject without the consideration of minute details.

In general, two lectures are delivered in each week during the Michaelmas and Lent Terms. 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 alone necessary.

Upon first entering the class for this course the student is required to pay a fee of £1; he is then free to attend all the experimental lectures during his University career.

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 each student in the accurate use of instruments, and he is then required himself to carry out experiments, or to make accurate measurements suggested to him, under the superintendence of the Professor and Demonstrator.

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. Refreshments of a simple character can be obtained by arrangement with the Porter of the Laboratory, and a room is set apart for the use of students, as a common room.

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

E

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 a principal working laboratory, 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, given weekly, usually during the Michaelmas and Lent Terms. For attendance on these lectures no fee is required.

The principal laboratory is open daily from 9 A.M. to 3 P.M. during Term-time, for instruction in Practical Chemistry. The fee for each Term is, for students working three days in the week, £3; for students working every day, £5. This fee entitles the student to the use of all apparatus and reagents essential for his work, with the exception of a small amount of apparatus peculiarly liable to be broken. The ordinary work of the student in the laboratory consists in the practice of elementary qualitative analysis; and of practice in those methods of qualitative

analysis, a knowledge of which is required of candidates for Honours in the School of Natural Science who make Chemistry their special subject.

In addition to this, two courses of instruction are given in the subsidiary laboratories; namely, a course on the methods of quantitative analysis, given by the Aldrichian Demonstrator; and a course of elementary instruction in chemical manipulation, intended for those beginning the practice of Chemistry, given by the Junior Demonstrator. The fee for each of these courses is, to students otherwise working in the laboratory, 10s., to other students, £1 the Term.

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 recognized; a great part of those now exhibited were bequeathed to the University by the late Rev. Dr. Buckland.

One collection is general, and is placed in the order of the strata, in vertical cases, beginning with the Lower Paleozoic. In the lower east corridor, the Palæozoic and Mesozoic strata are represented by their fossils, including the chalk; in the upper corridor, the Cainozoic forms of life are continued through Eocene and later systems to the deposits of modern periods. The greater part of the large series of bones from caverns was collected by Dr. Buckland. The cases are numbered 1 to 32 in the lower, 33 to 64 in the upper corridor; in each great division of the strata the fossils are placed in the order of natural affinity, so that either a condensed view of one great system or period of associated life—as the Cambro-Silurian, or Oolitic, or Cretaceous -may be had, or the student may follow one selected group of organic forms-as Brachiopoda, or Cephalopoda, or Fishes— through the whole extent of geological time. The specimens are numbered, and a Catalogue in MS. may be consulted on application to the Professor of Geology, who will also recommend books suited to the student in this department.

Another collection is special; it is entirely derived from explorations of localities near Oxford, being intended to illustrate fully the fossils of the several strata accessible within moderate distances to Oxford students: it is placed on the southern and eastern walls of the corridor. The specimens are labelled or in process of being so, and separate Catalogues will be prepared for each of the cases. The series extends downwards from the modern to the lower oolitic deposits.

7. DepartmenT OF ZOOLOGY.

Zoology. Specimens illustrative of the great divisions of the animal kingdom (excepting Crustacea, 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 possible, together, and distinct from other groups. Of reptiles a considerable proportion was part of the large gifts of the Rev.

« PreviousContinue »