UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO.

Evening Star, Issue 2871, 2 May 1872, Page 2

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO.

The inaugural address of the session was delivered last evening by Dr Black, Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy, and attracted a crowded audience. The Chancellor (the Hou. Major Richardson) presided. Professor Black, on coming forwatd, said he considered it a subject for congratulation, that so great a success had attended the first year's work of the University. It proved that high class education was equally valued in the Colony as at H nine. It was fortunate for the (future of the Province, and for the prospects of its prosperity, that the early founders had been liberal in the provision made for the instruction of youth. Their course of action in that respect would be re-

corded in history to their honor, and the impression produced on the minds of the people of the value of thorough education would ensure success in all schools and colleges. The fact of seventy-three students availing themselves of University instruction was encouraging to the Professors. It was perhaps well that in the infancy of the Colony a liberal provision was made for education ; for in a country in which population was so sparse compared with territory, and where so many avenues to wealth waited development, there was a risk of the young being engaged in business, when iu older countries they would have been at their studies. This would have been unfortunate, because those unacquainted with the advantages derivable from such educate n coul 1 not be expected to trouble themselves to secure it for their families. Man, capable of almost limitless development, if his faculties were untutored remained the most helpless of earth’s living creatures. Cultivate his faculties and he becomes monarch of the earth, lord over his fellow creatures. Such noble intellect should be developed, not arrested early in life. Little now depended on the unaided pov ers of man, and therefore it became the interest of every one to learn, as far as possible, the laws of nature. ') he advance of sciences was revolutionising the world’s educational systems. Either for peaceful or warlike purposes scientific education was required. One aim of it was to increase production at decreased cost. To this end a knowledge of the first principles of some departments of natural and physical science would be incalculably valuable to hundreds of thousands of workmen. Nature’s laws observed or broken rendered them either valuable allies or deadly enemies. By observing them much useless labor might be saved. A knowledge of geology would often save a miner infinite trouble in searching for ore. Chemistry would enable him rightly to value it; and engineering and mechanical science would enable him to procure it by the easiest methods. A miner armed with these sciences was a different being from one digging in the dark—dependent upon mere chance for success, The one was dignified by confidence in his own resources—the other plodded on in the old track, without a new idea, beaten by hundreds before his day. A University' education had, however, higher and more lasting advantages than these : it opened up regions of thought and action unconnected with mere personal comfort and the acquisition of wealth. It should infuse a spirit of earnestness into students, such as animated heroes in the post, and through knowledge of their works ally them with the leaders of thought in all ages. The modem idea of a University was that it should provide instruction in all the important branches of literature and science. The ancient languages of Greece and Rome had occupied a prominent position in old European Universities for hundreds of years. For a long time acquaintance with them was considered to embrace all that was called Scholarship.” But in Europe, especially in France and Germany, the prominence formerly given to them has been transferred to philosophy and science, which has given an impetus to the study' of them, and made Germany a favorite resort for students from all parts of the world. It lias enhanced the value of the German language as a vehicle of thought, and given an impulse to art and and manufactures that bids fair to place Germany foremost iu them, as it has done iu in the study of war. The tide, too, was turning in the English Universities. Less exclusive attention was given to the dead languages. It would be a pity if the current against them ran too strong, for they embodied a literature worthy of study, not only as inherently beautiful, but developing interesting phases of human thought at a momentous period in the worlds history. They afforded an excellent field for a certain kind of culture and an instrument of mental discipline, difficult to explain. Mathematical science was indespensable in education. The close process by which mathematicians advance from fii-st principles to results compelled the severest mental exertion. The study of physical and natural science had a peculiar value as a mental culture ; it afforded in some degree training for the future of a life. In real life, after school, man’s occupation was chiefly observation of material phenomena, and of the results of various experiments ; collecting and investigating facts in their mutual relations ; dis criminating between the powers, properties, and qualities of substances, selecting such as well serve our purpose, and iu judging every subject presented to us. This was precisely the method of studying the natural sciences. So closely allied were chemistry, geology, mineralogy, neology, botany, and| physiology, that a thorough knowledge of any one implied acquaintance with one or more of the rest. Perhaps chemistry' was an exception ; for while it contributed largely to most of the others, it did uot need aid from them in return. They, however, in their higher branches, and some even in their elementary, had recourse to the chemical laboratory. The botanist needed information on the constituents of plants ; the physiologist on the constituents of animals : the geologist and mineralogist on the constituents of rocks aud minerals, and their states of combination. The infancy of chemistry was shrouded in obscurity. It was unknown to the Greeks and Romans. Both the foundation and superstructure of their science were mistakes founded upon erroneous assumptions, They were wrong in their method of constructing a science of nature. Had they, after the manner of Bacon, recorded the facts of their experiments, they would have given valuable service to the science of the future. (Pro-

fessor Black gave a sketch of Grecian physical science as taught by Thales, b.g. COO, Heraclitus, and Empedocles, and showed that their mistakes arose from speculating from insufficient data. He gave an outline of the theories founded upon the assumption that there was but one element, water, and the subsequently accepted notion that there were four, and showed that such speculations because founded on false principles, were worthless. 4fter a lapse of a thousand years chemistry was studied in Arabia, where numerous facts were gathered. They had just notions of the combining projrerties of mercury and sulphur, but they fell iuto the mistake of supposing metals to be compound substances. This chemical dogma maintained i tself to the beginning of the present century. The aim of the most of the alchemists was totind the philosopher’s stone foi conversion of base metals into gold, and the elixir of life to confer perpetual youth and immortality. Amongst the most cele brated of these early alchemists was Koger Bacon, who endeavored to introduce scientific methods of research, but was before his age, and through the power of the Church, imprisoned ten years. In Germany, Basil Valentine, by his discoveries, gave an im-

pulse to improved methods of analysis. The last name he would mention in connection with the alchemists was Theophrastus Bombastes, a Swiss who formed clear ideas of proper method of research, but had not strength of mind to follow them. The quaint names given to substances by these early chemists had been discarded as unscientific. Krom the time of those pioneers, the facts of chemistry went on slowly accumulating to the very end of the 17th century, when a new false theory gave a new impulse to the science. Stahl of Halle enunciated the doctrine of phlogiston, which was accepted as the true theory of combus* tion, and was believed in for nearly one hundred years. The theory was disproved by actual experiment, and received its death blow by Priestley's discovery of oxygen. Subsequent discoveries by Black, Cavendish, and Larvisier, in the eighteenth century—the chemical nomenclature invented by the latter, the electrical experiments of Galvani and Volta, the discoveries of Davy. Dalton’s atomic theory, Berzelius’s symbol’s and the new line of investigation opened by Wollaston, Kirchoff, and Bunsen with the spectroscope, together with the system of organic chemistry, arranged by the labors of Berzelius, Liebig. Laurent, Gerbardt, Hofmann, Wohler, and Wortz, have rendered chemistry one of the fairest domains of science. The great industries of the world were gigantic chemical laboraties, in which processes were conduced on a larger scale, through which they have achieved success. At the conclusion of the lecture, which evoked frequent applause, the Speaker of the Provincial Council (Mr Gillies) moved a vote of thanks to Professor Black; and asked that the lecture might be printed. The Chancellor,, after acknowledging the vote, said that the University Council had met that day, and hadjnuder consideration the question as to the time when the competition for the Richardson scholarship should take place. It had been decided that it should take place on Friday and Monday next. There was another matter he had to refer to, and that he felt sure would be interesting to the ladies. It was we 1 known that at the request of 140 odd ladies—well, it did not matter whether the number was odd or even— he University Council had taken into consideration the expediency of of admitting ladies to the University classes. He was present when the deliberations took place, and he must say there was not a single dissentient voice,—(Applause.) He wished them to understand this at least—that if Otago did not take precedence in other respects it did in this, that the University Council had unanimously resolved that women should not be placed in a position of inferiority as compared with the men. —(Applause.) The Council, however, were perfectly helpless in the matter if the Professors had not been willing; and he felt quPe justified in saying that nothing would give them greater satisfaction than to find ladies attending their classes, and he hoped they would attend and take the shine out of the men.—(Laughter.) He earnestly entreated the women of Otago to take advantage of the opportunities now presented to them through the liberality of the University Council and the Professors, and enter themselves as students for some departments of the sciences which were now so earnestly and effectively taught in the University. He begged some of those whose example would certainly be followed, to take the lead and enrol themselves at once in some of the classes, and thus give an impetus to the movement which would be irresistible. An example was wanted, and he knew the women of Otago would not fail in their duties. After an intimation by the Vice-Chancel-lor (the Rev. P. M, Stuart), that the regular work of the session would begin on Monday, the proceedings terminated.