A letter to the ... Lord Provost, magistrates, and council, patrons of the University of Edinburgh, on the present state of practical chemistry : with remarks on ... a pamphlet by Dr Anderson / by D. B. Reid.

Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the ... Lord Provost, magistrates, and council, patrons of the University of Edinburgh, on the present state of practical chemistry : with remarks on ... a pamphlet by Dr Anderson / by D. B. Reid. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    of Students at the College Practical Class, arose from the low price of the tickets to my lectures. This statement, which occupies so large a portion of Dr Anderson’s pamphlet, and which he has so often reiterated, is utterly incorrect; and had he inquired, instead of merely sur- mising, he would easily have found out his error. The circumstances which disprove it are the following :— During the present year, upwards of 300 tickets were taken at my new class-room, part for the Lectures and part for the Practical Course. But 160 of the Practical Class Tickets were taken by gentlemen who never attended the Lectures he alluded to, and who, accordingly, had access to the College Class and to mine on the very same terms. Each paid L. 3,3s. for his ticket, the sum announced in the College advertise- ment. Farther, in the Summer Practical Classes at present going on, 61 of the Students attending paid L. 3, 3s. each for their ticket. They had no privilege whatever held out to them. They entered my Classes precisely on the same pecuniary terms as were held out to them at the College; and, if more proof were necessary that the price was not the sole cause at least of the difference in attendance at the College Class and mine, I can point out a number of gentlemen, who, while they paid L.4, 7s. for attending a Course of Lectures, at the same time paid me L. 3, 3s. for my Practical Ticket. I have not stated these things, my Lord and Gentlemen, “ merely on surmisethere is no room for the possibility of mis- take, and my books are here, as well as a great number of the gentlemen who have attended me under these circumstances, to testify to the accuracy of my statements. But indeed a moment’s reflection might have satisfied Dr Anderson of the palpable slip he made in bringing forward this assertion ; for, as Dr Hqfe had a class of 250, how hap- pened it that, out of those who had paid Dr Hope L.4, 7s. and therefore were not influenced by my Course, no practical class was formed P Secondly, Dr Anderson gives you a long detail of the great disapprobation expressed by some gentlemen at the steps I