University of Virginia Library

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 the Earth 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.

Class of Practical Physics.—Arrangements are now
making to accommodate those students who, expecting to
be teachers of Science, or for other reasons, desire to acquaint
themselves practically with the details of Physical Manipulation.
These accommodations will, it is hoped, be enlarged
as the demand for them augments. The course of instruction
will be partly experimental and partly theoretical. For
the present, the subjects presented will be these:

A. Experimental.—1. Study of the Construction, Management
and Preservation of Physical Apparatus. The
student will take apart, examine and put together various
philosophical instruments, and will carefully repeat with
them the experiments performed in the lecture room.

2. Use of "Instruments of Precision."—Measurement of
length, of differences of altitude, of volume; Calibration
of tubes; Specific Gravity of solids and liquids;
Measurement of small intervals of time by revolving
mirror; of number of vibrations of sounding bodies by
Syren, Monochord and revolving mirror or screen; of Curvature
and focal distances of mirrors and lenses; Manipulation
and use of the Telescope, Microscope and Spectroscope;
Daily Observations with Meteorological Instruments;
Determination of the errors of instruments.

B. Theoretical.—Reduction of Observations; Interpolation;
Graphical representation of results; Calculation,
from a series of measurements of a quantity, of its most
probable value, and of the degree of precision attained;
Essays on prescribed physical topics.