Abstract
THE subject of chemistry was first introduced to Oxford by Robert Boyle, a founder member of the Royal Society, during his residence in the City for a dozen or more years from 1654. In 1659 he brought Peter Sthael of Strasburgh to give lectures and instruction which were attended by senior and junior members of the University. Robert Plot (F.R.S. 1677), was appointed in 1683 to a chair of chemistry and given charge of the (Old) Ashmolean, then just constructed, in the basement of which was a chemical laboratory containing furnaces similar to those of Boyle. Throughout the eighteenth century, however, chemistry shared with other Oxford studies the low academic standards of the period. Interest increased in the early eighteen hundreds, and by the middle of the century, through the influence of a small group headed by Henry Acland (F.R.S. 1847), John Ruskin and Charles Daubeny (F.R.S. 1822) the University was persuaded to accept science as a respectable subject. Acland’s aim was to include some science in all degree courses, but specialization was preferred. An Honour School of Natural Science leading to the degree of B. A. was set up in 1850, and at the same time money was found for the erection of the Science Museum with attached laboratories. Daubeny, in 1848, had moved out of the Ashmolean to a laboratory he built at his own expense in the Physic Garden, and which he left at his death to Magdalen College.
Published Version
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