The Teaching of Chemistry in Eighteenth-Century Oxford

But to return to the Laboratory. I must say it is right well built. It is as long as deep as the [old] Ashmolean but not as broad. It is completely vaulted over and is provided with many kinds of furnaces, some quite remarkable, all of which are decorated in the most costly manner with architectural decorations and the like. . . The present professor of Chemistry does not trouble about it, and the operator (said to be a good-for-nothing man) still 

One of Busby s pupils who went to Christ Church was (Sir) Edward Hannes (1663/4-1710), who was the Professor of Chemistry at the beginning of the eighteenth century. But the chair lapsed after he left Oxford to practise medicine in London in 1699, and become a physician to Queen Anne in 1702. He resigned his Studentship (fellowship) at Christ Church, but that was because he married not because he was leaving Oxford. It is even debatable if he ever vacated his professorship before his death. Thereafter for the rest of the 

Lecture 1, Introduction 2-4, Fire 5, Fire and Air 6-7, Air 8, Water 9-10, Mineral Waters 11, Earth 12, Salts, acid salts in particular 13-15, Salts neutral salts 16, sulphur 17, Oils and Vegetable Matters 18, On the analysis of Animals and Vegetables 19, Temperature 20, Animal Juices 21, Metals gold ( lead, platinum), silver 22, metals copper, tin 23, Metals antimony 24, Metals bismuth, zinc, cobalt, arsenic 25, Colours, prisms 26, On fermentation 27, Artificial gums 28, On Docinay and some mercurials 29, Poisons 30, Phosphors 31, [Incomplete] 

Alcock was a Whig, whereas Frewin, like his colleague Freind, was a Fligh Tory. 

Alcock left Oxford for Bath in 1757 and he was replaced as the anatomy lecturer by John Smith (1721-1796). It is not clear if Smith also replaced Alcock as the chemistry lecturer - it is significant that Francis Bayley went to Edinburgh in exactly this period - but he gave chemistry lectures as part of an anatomy course in 1759. Chemistry came after agriculture, and was only a small part of the course. Smith drew heavily on other authors and he kept the content of his lectures within the medical remit of the course. For example, alkaline salts was largely a discussion of bile and limewater was mentioned for its ability to dissolve kidney stones. This is not to say that he was completely out of touch with contemporary developments. He mentioned Black s MD thesis (which had been published only five years earlier) and Joshua Ward s process for the manufacture of sulfuric acid. It appears that Smith continued to teach chemistry alongside anatomy at least until he was appointed Savilian Professor of Geometry in 1766.  

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