 | Catalogue of the University of Virginia |  |
VII.—SCHOOL OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.
PROF. SMITH.
There are three classes in this School.
1. The Junior or General Class, which meets three times each
week throughout the session of nine months. The object of the
course of lectures to this class is to furnish the student with a comprehensive
view of Modern Physics, and to make him familiar
with its methods of investigation. With the design of laying a
thoroughly scientific basis for the course, a large space is given at the
force. These doctrines are established, and their leading consequences
are traced, without the use of mathematical symbols.
Guided by these truths, the teacher discusses, in the light of experiment,
the structure of matter according to the received atomic
hypotheses, and the equilibrium and motion of solids and fluids.
These topics, with various applications, occupy the first half of the
course of lectures.
The remainder of the course is devoted to Molecular Physics, and
treats of Capillarity, Osmose, Wave Motion, Sound, Light, Heat
and Electricity. In this, as in the previous portion of the lectures,
the established laws of motion and force are kept steadily in view,
and an attempt is made so to present and discuss the phenomena as
to convince the student that the entire body of Physics is a coherent
and harmonious system of mechanical truth.
Text-Book.—Silliman's Physics.
2. The Senior Class.—This class meets twice a week, and studies
Mechanics and Astronomy.
Text-Books.—Parkinson's Mechanics, Norton's Astronomy.
MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY.
3. These subjects are assigned to a separate class, which the members
of the other classes in the School may attend without payment
of an additional fee. In this class the lectures commence with
General Mineralogy, which is treated with especial reference to
Geology, to which it is designed to be an introduction. In the lectures
on Geology, the specific identity of ancient and modern Geological
causes is pointed out; the present action of these causes,
whether atmospheric, aqueous or igneous, is considered, and their
effects in the past history of our planet are examined. The illustrations
are drawn, as far as practicable, from the Geological structure
of Virginia.
The students have an opportunity of familiarizing themselves with
the minerals, rocks and fossils exhibited in the lectures.
Text-Books.—Dana's Manuals of Mineralogy and Geology.
| Catalogue of the University of Virginia | |