The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-04 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL COLLEGE OF
CHEMISTRY.
(From the Liverpool Journal.)
The fourth session of the Liverpool College of Che-
mistry has just closed, and with successful results.
During the last four mouths Dr. Muspratt has had under
his tuition students from various Darts of the kingdom,
besides a number of pupils residing in Liverpool and its
vicinity, all of whom, he states, have made excellent pro-
gress and given him entire satisfaction. Mr. Deck, of
Cambridge, who was more than a year under Professor
Wailer, of Germany (a co-publisher with Liebig), at-
tended during the session. He has written that he is
very anxious to return—a most flittering compliment,
csnsidering the school whence he came. The senior
pupil, Mr. Josepli Denson, has made such rapid strides
in the science, that his papers are repeatedly read b--
fore the Chemical Society of London. One was recently
read before the body on the identity of two acids, in the
Methyle series—au elaborate investigation ingeniously
worked ow. All must feel fully convinced that no
great end can be accomplished without indomitable in-
dustry and inexhaustible patience. Throughout the
session Professor Muspratt repeatedly submitted the
pupils to examinations, during some of which several
gentlemen of high literary acquirements were present,
who expressed themselves in a most flattering manner
highly satisfied with the progress of the students and
their skill in solving complex synthetical and analytical
problems. The gentlemen have written several compli-
mentary notes on the occasion, one of which, from Mr.
Miles, we append:—
" During my recent visits to the College of Chemistry,
I have been both surprised and gratified—surprised by
observing from time to time the rapid attainment of the
students under your supervision, from the simplest be-
ginnings of the science of chemistry to the most com-
plex analytical processes—gratified with the manner in
which your students replied to the numerous questions
submitted to their understandings. During a residence
of nine years at the Universiiy of Glasgow, I had ample
opportunities of judging of the attainments of the
students studying there, many of whom exhibited a
tolerably accurate knowledge of the science of chemistry;
but I must admit that, in no case of daily or periodic
examination, did I ever hear students manifest such
promptness and accuracy in scientific examinations as
Messrs. Forster, Fairrie, Roberts, and W. Denson did
on the several occasions when I have been present in your
laboratory."
We may obtain an insight and a very fair knowledge
of nearly every other science, by lectures and books, but
with chemistry this is impossible. Let the most minute
description of an experiment be given to the student in a
lecture or treatise, and, notwithstanding that the process
is familiar to him, in the language of the lecturer, on
his attempting to perform it, innumerable difficulties
present themselves; and this is more particularly the
case with manufacturing processes. The laboratory is
the only place where a beneficial knowledge of the science
can be obtained. Chemistry has justly been pro-
nounced a mine pregnant with inexhaustible wealth, and
its ramifications are accessible to all who have the op-
portunity and industry to explore them. Experimental
study, supplanting mere speculative philosophy, is work-
ing miracles on all sides. Experiment—tedious, disap-
pointing, perplexing—is the great lever by which the
chemist can raise himself and his art, and enable him to
make every day fertile with discoveries in the sphere of
chemical science. The complete revolution which almost
every branch of human industry has undergone, during
the last half century, is chiefly owing to the chemiet,
who is not merely the benefactor of a class, but of a na-
tion, for by him the most precious secrets of nature are
wrested from their hiding places, and turned to prac-
tical and successful results; while the analyst lays open
to us the constituents of waters, and other substances,
and proves upon which ingredient their effects mainly
depend. No better instance of the illative advantage of
analysis can be given than the number of factories of
mineral waters, &c., now in operation throughout all
parts of the kingdom. Analysis pointed out the effica-
cious elements in the waters by which the manufacturer
was enabled in many cases to prepare a much more
active mixture than the native spring. Another striking
illustration of the triumphs of analysis is held out in
the artificial formation of ultramarine, which, accord-
ing to a distinguished philosopher of the present day, is
the most brilliant and conclusive achievement of inor-
ganic chemistry.
We have every reason to believe that ultimately
chemistry will resolve the most exalted problem, in the
animal kingdom, with which the human intellect can
be engaged—the laws of vitality. Ilas it not dispelled
an enormous amount of empiricism from the healing
art ? In the words of a talented chemist—that invin-
cible weapon analysis has cut through the mantle of
prejudice and error in which the medical agents of the
art had been so long enshrouded; the true ingredients and
offices of the various parts of food have been discovered
by its all-powerful agency, and the constitution of the
disease and healthy organism has, in a great mea-
sure, been unfolded by its irresistible power. In short,
chemistry is so palpably essential, that no man can be
considered a properly educated chemist and druggist
who is not sufficiently versed in it to be able to give a
satisfactory account of the articles in which he deals.
The success of the Liverpool College of Chemistry
has exceeded the most sanguine expectations of the
founder and also of his friends, abroad and at home.
Ile wishes it, in justice, to be stated, that he feels
greatly indebted for the way in which he has beeen
able to support his efforts to many of the leading mem-
bers of the medical profession and principal firms in the
town, and especially to .Ir. William Denson, who has
taken a great interest in this institution since its com-
mencement.

Nothing is more remarkable than the progress which
has been made in chemistry in Liverpool since 1)r. Mus-
pratt opened his college. Three years ago, it was almost
an impossibility to get a retort or any piece of chemical
apparatus in the town of Liverpool ; now that the
town has got Dr. Muspratt's laboratory. such apparatus
may be everywhere found, and other laboratories are
springing up.