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PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS UPON THE
of Yorkshire ; and 710, taking the proportion of Lancashire. If, indeed, we take the proportions in the manufacturing towns, it will answer in some cases to a population of 5500, and in others of little more than 500. But even taking the proportion from towns in the least manufacturing counties, as Huntingdonshire, the population required to furnish 100 will not exceed 900—which supposes a town of about 200 houses. One of three times the size is but an inconsiderable place ; and yet in such a place, upon a very moderate computation, 200 persons might easily be found to spare sixpence a-week all the year round ; which would be amply sufficient for two lectures. In the larger towns, where 500 or 600 persons might associate, five shillings a-quarter would be sufficient to carry on three or four lectures, and leave between L.150 and L.200 a-year for the purchase of books. In estimating the expenses, I have supposed a room to be hired and the rent to be moderate. To make a beginning, the parties must make a shift with any public room or other place that may be vacant ; the great point is to begin : the numbers are certain to increase, and the income with the numbers, as the plan becomes known and its manifold attractions operate upon the people. For the same reason I reckon a small sum for apparatus. Great progress may be made in teaching with very cheap and simple experiments. Indeed, some of the most important, if not the most showy, are the least costly and complicated. By far the grandest discoveries in natural science were made with hardly any apparatus. A pan of water and two thermometers were the tools that in the skilful hands of Black detected latent heat ; a crown’s worth of glass, threepenny-worth of salt, a little chalk, and a pair of scales, enabled the same great philosopher to found the system of modern chemistry, by tracing the existence and the combina-