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 combinations
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-Books.—"Fownes' Chemistry," last edition. Recommended for reference:
Miller's "Elements of Chemistry;" À 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-baking, 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, nitro-glycerine, paints 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-Books.—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.