University of Virginia Library

SCHOOL OF GENERAL AND APPLIED CHEMISTRY.

Prof. Mallet.

In this School there are two classes:

I. The class in general Chemistry hears three lectures each week
throughout the session. The fundamental ideas of chemical science,
the relations of Chemistry to Physics, the laws regulating chemical
combination by weight and by volume, the atomic theory as at
present viewed in connection with Chemistry, the chemical nomenclature
and symbols now in use, and a general survey of the descriptive
chemistry of the elements and their compounds inorganic and
organic, are brought forward in order, with incidental allusion to the
applications in medicine, the arts and manufactures, of the facts mentioned.

The attention of medical students is particularly drawn to the
Physiological, Medical and Sanitary relations of the subject — the
chemical nature and properties of poisons, methods of detecting them
and of counteracting their effects, &c.

Text Book — Fownes' Chemistry, last edition. Recommended for
reference: Miller's Elements of Chemistry; A. Naquet — Principles de
Chimie fondée sur les théories modernes.

Lectures on Pharmacy are given to the students of medicine, this
special course beginning soon after the intermediate examinations.

Text Book — Parrish's Pharmacy.

II. The class in Industrial Chemistry, to which class also three lectures
a week are delivered, studies in detail the chemical principles and

processes specially concerned in the more important arts and manufactures,
upon which in large measure depends the development of
the natural resources of the country; the opportunity being thus presented
of preparation for such positions as those of the miner and
metallurgist, the chemical manufacturer, the dyer, bleacher, tanner,
sugar refiner, &c.

Amongst the more prominent subjects discussed are: The production
of materials of very general application, including the metallurgy of
iron, copper, lead, zinc, tin, silver, gold, &c.; the preparation and
properties of alloys, and the processes of electro-metallurgy, the
manufacture upon the large scale of acids, alkalies, salts, glass, porcelain
and earthenware; the production and preservation of food
including the processes of bread-making, wine-making, brewing and
distilling, the manufacture of sugar and vinegar, the curing of meat,
the examination and purification of drinking water, &c.; chemical
arts relating to clothing, such as bleaching, dyeing, calico printing,
tanning, and the preparation of Indian rubber; the chemistry of those
arts which afford us shelter, embracing the examination of building
materials, lime-burning, the manufacture of mortar and cements, the
explosive agents used in blasting, as gunpowder, gun cotton, nitroglycerine,
paints and varnishes, disinfecting materials, &c.; heating
and ventilation, the different kinds of fuel and modes of burning them;
illumination by artificial means, candles, lamps, the preparation of
petroleum, the manufacture of illuminating gas, matches; the chemistry
of washing, the preparation of soap, starch and perfumes; the
chemical relations of printing and writing, the manufacture of paper,
ink, artists' colors, photographic materials, &c.

Text Book — Wagner's Chemical Technology, translated by Crookes.
For reference — Richardson and Watts' Chemical Technology, Muspratt's
Chemistry as Applied to Arts and Manufactures; Ure's Dictionary
of Arts and Manufactures; Dumas — Traité de Chimie appliquée
aux Arts; Percy's Metallurgy, &c.

The lectures to both these classes are illustrated by suitable experiments,
and by such specimens, models, drawings, &c., as the various
subjects require. The collections of the University in illustration of
the processes and products of industrial chemistry have been procured
with much expense and pains in this country, England, France, and
Germany, and are unusually extensive and good — amongst the best, if
not the best, on this side of the Atlantic.