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B.—Laboratory Course.

This is arranged for three classes:

1. The First Class meets twice each week during the session,
on each occasion spending from two to four hours in
practical experiment in the Laboratory. A regularly arranged
course of practice in Chemical Manipulation is first
pursued; Qualitative Analysis is then taken up, and, the
means of detecting the most important chemical substances
having been learned, students are required to find out for
themselves by analysis the constituents of unknown materials
presented to them. Special attention is given to substances
having useful applications in the Arts or connected
with Agriculture. Towards the close of the session the elements
of Quantitative Analysis are taught, so far as the
limitation of time will permit.

2. The Laboratory will be open to the Second Class on
five days of each week during the whole of the working
hours of each day. A full course of instruction in Practical
Chemistry, including the Qualitative and Quantitative
Analysis of Ores, Soils, Manures, Technical Products, &c.,
will be given; and students will be assisted and encouraged
to undertake original research.

3. The Third class is one specially intended for students
of Medicine, and will meet for lessons of two hours each
once in the week for four months of the session. To this
class the practical applications of Chemistry to Medicine will
be taught—the detection of Poisons, chemical and microscopical
examination of Animal Products, urine, blood, &c.

Amongst the works recommended to laboratory students
are: Fresenius—Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis;
H. Rose—Handbuch der analytischen Chemie (also in French
translation); Greville Williams—Handbook of Chemical
Manipulation; Wöhler—Examples for Practice in Chemical
Analysis; Bolley—Handbuch der technisch-chemischen Untersuchungen;
Odling—Practical Chemistry for Medical
Students.

The Diploma of Graduate in this School will be conferred
upon such students as attend with diligence the Course of
Lectures and the Second Class of Laboratory Instruction,
and give evidence on examination of satisfactory attainments
in the same. For the requirements in this school for the
degrees in Mining and Civil Engineering, &c., reference is
made to the general notice of Degrees.

Very liberal provision has been made by the Board of
Visitors for the material means of illustration of the teachings
of this Chair. A new Laboratory building, of ample
size, specially designed for the purposes of working students,
has been erected, containing all necessary rooms, fitted with
double windows for the preservation of uniform temperature,
and amply supplied with gas, water, and all proper
laboratory fixtures. All needful apparatus, chemicals, minerals,
models, &c., and an unusually fine collection of
specimens illustrating the various arts and manufactures as
practiced on the great scale, have been procured from England,
France and Germany.

It may safely be said that the University of Virginia is
in this department inferior in material preparation for instruction
to no institution of learning in America, and, in
some respects, is probably superior to any.

With a portion of the means supplied by the donation of
the late Mr. Samuel Miller of Lynchburg, the Board of Visitors
of the University have established, in connection with
the Agricultural Department two scholarships, each of five
hundred dollars per annum, and tenable for two years (one
to be filled and one vacated in each year), to be competed
for at a special examination upon the whole of the subjects
taught in the department, to be held near the close of each
session—candidates for this examination to be already graduates
in the studies of the department. Scholars thus
elected will be expected to continue their studies during the
term of their scholarships, and to render such assistance in

the minor duties of instruction, in the performance of
analyses and researches, &c., as may be required of them.
It is hoped that thus the opportunity may be afforded in
this school to such students of becoming thoroughly competent
chemists, worthy of public confidence in regard to all
the purposes which their special knowledge may subserve,
and that even during their tenure of the scholarships in
question they may be able to render useful service in the
examination and analysis of agricultural and other materials
of general interest. They will be subject to no charge for
tuition during the two years, but will be expected to defray
the expense of material they may consume in the Laboratory.