University of Virginia Library

V.—NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.

PROFESSOR 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 outset to the discussion of the cardinal doctrines of motion and
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.
Throughout the session constant reference is had to the wants of
students in the several departments of Applied Science.

Text Book.—Silliman's Physics.

2. The Senior Class.—This class meets twice a week, and studies
Mechanics and Astronomy.

Text Books.—Jackson's or Smith'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.