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, etc.

Text-Book—Fownes' Chemistry, last edition. Recommended for reference: Miller's
Elements of Chemistry; A. Naquet—Principes 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, etc.

Amongst the more important subjects discussed are: the production
of materials of very general application, including the metallurgy
of iron, copper, lead, zinc, tin, silver, gold, etc.; 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, etc.; chemical
arts relating to clothing, such as bleaching, dyeing, calico printing,
tanning, and the preparation of India 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,
pais and varnishes, disinfecting materials, etc.; 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, etc.

Text-Book—Wagner's Chemical Technology, translated by Crookes. For reference—Richardson
and Watt's 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, etc.

The lectures to both these classes are illustrated by suitable experiments,
and by such specimens, models, drawings, etc., 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.