Of course it is not claimed for Roscoe that he actually initiated this remarkable movement—a movement which must be regarded as one of the most significant features of our times; he shares the credit with others. But he certainly was one of the mainsprings of it. It may be said the time was ripe for the step. Nevertheless, it is due to him to affirm that he was one of the earliest to perceive that fact, and to take occasion boldly by the hand. If he cannot justly be said to have actually started the action, he was at least one of its most powerful prime movers. CHAPTER VI ROSCOE AS A TEACHER Some years before Owens College attained to the position of a university, several attempts were made to induce Roscoe to sever his connection with it. In 1870 he was offered the lectureship on Chemistry at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in succession to Dr. Matthiessen. The following letter under date October 14, 1870, refers to this circumstance: … I have just refused to go to London again! They wanted me at St. Bartholomew’s. Miller is to be succeeded by ⸺ ⸺, and it appears that this gentleman has made a compromise with the New School, and is to adopt O = 12! Is not this rich? Originality at King’s was always at a discount, but then Orthodoxy reigns supreme, and this is the “Wahre Jakob,” as they say in German! Lockyer is down here visiting Stewart, and I had a physical and astronomical party here last night (my wife being away), at which a large number of interesting new observations on the heavenly bodies and on science in general were made, which did not conclude until the small hours. I cannot buckle to the new book—but I have arranged the order of things to my tolerable satisfaction. Whether it will ever see the daylight remains a mystery.… Two years later he was invited to become a candidate for the vacant chair of Chemistry at Oxford, with the promise of a fellowship if elected. That he might be Brodie’s successor was, he says, a tempting suggestion, but on consideration he felt he had a wider scope, and the possibility of greater usefulness in building up the chemical school of Owens College—a decision which he had the satisfaction of knowing met with the warm approval of Huxley and other friends.