Francis Bell wrote that Crum Brown's intellectual reputation "gave him an aura set off by his personality; his venerable stooped figure and the contrast provided by his white beard and hair, and skull cap and the sparkling vitality of his black eyes. In spite of all this a rowdy, genial disorder prevailed and when the row became intolerable, he would depart to his retiring room. A fervent chorus of "Will ye no' come back again" followed and after a suitable interval, back he came. I think he really enjoyed our bizarre show of affection and teasing. The story of his fall entering the classroom and his remark on picking himself up "just a brown precipitate, gentlemen" I cannot vouch for".12
Crum Brown's particular teaching strength was his lectures on organic chemistry to advanced students. He selected a few topics and dealt with them in detail in such a way as to make them relevations of the working of the scientific method. The notes taken by James Walker of Crum Brown's organic lectures are preserved in the Library of the University of Edinburgh and fully bear out the above view.13
Within the University Crum Brown was a valued administrator. He was a prominent member of the University Court for many years. He long acted as convener of the Science Committee of the Senatus which was responsible for the Degrees in Science until the establishment of a Faculty of Science in 1893.
During Crum Brown's tenure of the Chair there were a number of changes which together may be regarded as the first phase in the evolution of a Department of Chemistry as understood today. Before the Universities (Scotland) Act of 1858 the only University teachers were the Professors who, where appropriate, as in Chemistry, privately employed assistants to help in, for example, the preparation of lecture demonstrations. The 1858 Commissioners were favourably impressed by the work done by private assistants and provided funds for University Assistants to be attached to the chairs most in need of help, and the first Assistants in Chemistry were appointed in 1862. One of the most distinguished of Crum Brown's early Assistants was James Dewar, invited to the Chair of Natural Philosophy in Cam-bridge, who while at Edinburgh discovered the use of charcoal in the production of high vacua and laid the foundation of his later work on the liquefaction of gases and the production of low temperatures.14 In 1876 the staff comprised two Assistants for whom the University provided £200 a year of which £100 was paid to the demonstrator of practical chemistry and £100 to the chief Assistant in the laboratory who also received £50 from Crum Brown; there was also a privately employed lecture assistant who received £100 per annum; the Hope Prize Fund provided a scholarship tenable for one year of about £30 which was awarded to the best student of practical chemistry and the holder was bound to assist the professor in the laboratory and was given certain restricted duties which would not unduly interfere with his studies; there were also three privately employed servants who were paid a guinea a week throughout the year.15
Up to 1858, Old College, built between 1789 and 1833, housed the entire University. As early as 1832 the architect W.H. Playfair considered the chemical laboratory to be inadequate and by Crum Brown's time it was officially described as "little better than a kitchen".16 The first new building was the Reid School of Music built in 1858 and the second new building, much more significant in relieving the pressure on space in Old College, was the Medical School in Teviot Place. Planning began in 1874 when the nine Professors, including the Professor of Chemistry, who were to be provided for were asked to specify their requirements. Between 1880 and 1884 the Faculty of Medicine transferred from Old College to its new building. The Chemistry rooms in Old College were before the start of the 1884-5 session handed over to Zoology and in that session Chemistry transferred to the north-west corner of the new buildings, where two Lecture Rooms and the Practical Chemistry Class Room had been completed. The larger of the two lecture rooms had seats for 400, and the smaller for 120. In the Practical Chemistry Class Room, intended chiefly for medical students, about 100 working places were provided. The General Chemical Laboratories and the numerous ancillary rooms were opened in the summer of 1885. These laboratories were intended for students able to devote from 2 to 7 hours daily to practical work, with a view to taking chemistry as a special subject in their Science Degree curriculum or qualifying themselves for situations as practicing chemists; working places were provided for forty students, this accommodation being far in excess of the requirements at the time. These new laboratories were at first equipped mainly for analytical chemistry but as the need arose ancillary rooms were equipped for such techniques as gas analysis, physico-chemical methods, and electrolytic analysis. The number of students working in the Chemical Laboratories gradually increased from about 27 in 1885 to about 70 in 1900 and during 1903 an extensive addition was made by adding a floor above the existing laboratories which provided forty additional working places, a balance room, and for the first time an office for the assistants. The enlarged facilities were open to visitors on 4 January 1904 and a small descriptive booklet, proudly entitled "School of Chemistry",was provided.
With the new laboratories of 1885 came postgraduate workers, one of the first being James Walker who after graduation in 1885 continued to work in the laboratory; among the few fellow-workers were Hugh Robert Mill, P.C. Ray, Alexander Smith, subsequently Professor at Columbia University, and David Orme Masson, subsequently Professor in the University of Melbourne.17 With the growth of chemistry the number of assistants increased and in 1890 there were five, Leonard Dobbin, John Gibson, Hugh Marshall, Alexander Smith, and James Walker. They lunched together in a dark and dismal room in the basement and constituted themselves into a club, the Alembic Club, which arranged meetings outside working hours to discuss chemical problems of interest. Later they undertook the publication of fundamental papers of historical interest under the title of "Alembic Club Reprints". Leonard Dobbin, the club secretary, played the chief part in this venture which was very successful. The Alembic Club is now under the aegis of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Important changes in the University were inaugurated by the Universities (Scotland) Act of 1889. The Act opened the University to women for graduation and admitted them to the regular classes on equal terms with men. The Faculty of Science was established in 1893 with James Geikie, Professor of Geology, as its first Dean. Changes were made in the regulations for Degrees in Science; the 2-year curriculum for the B.Sc. Degree became a 3-year curriculum of 7 courses; 3 courses were taken in First Year and during Second and Third Years four courses in one of which it was necessary to specialise; the Degree of D.Sc. was awarded primarily on a thesis based on original research and not as hitherto by examination. The appointment of Lecturers, of whom before 1889 there were very few, was regularised; in 1894 Leonard Dobbin who had been an Assistant since 1880 was appointed to the first Lectureship in Chemistry. The Professors were no longer to receive class-fees from the students but were appointed with regular salaries; the salary of the Professor of Chemistry was fixed at £1400 p.a. but during Crum Brown's tenure of the Chair was to be £1828 in line with what he had been receiving under the class-fee system.
During Crum Brown's tenure of the Chair, Chemistry passed from being 'a man and a boy' to a small Department similar in many respects to a modern Department of Chemistry. During Crum Brown's first year, the teachers were himself and two Assistants, there was one lecture course primarily for medical students, there was only one student for the degree of B.Sc. in Physical Science, the chemical laboratory was 'little better than a kitchen' and there were no research workers. By contrast in the year of Crum Brown's retirement, the academic staff consisted of the Professor, 3 Lecturers and 4 Assistants; the courses were (i) the elementary course primarily for medical students but now containing a number of students intending further study in chemistry, (ii) a course in organic and advanced inorganic chemistry for students, about 25 in number, taking chemistry for the Final B.Sc. Examination, and (iii) advanced courses, for those three or four students specialising in chemistry, on Chemical Theory and History of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Crystallography, and Physical Chemistry; the undergraduate laboratory work, in addition to analysis, consisted of the preparation of pure substances and examination of their properties, and physico-chemical experiments; there were research laboratories and several joint papers by Crum Brown and research workers had been published. It is not surprising that Crum Brown viewed his retirement with mixed feelings writing in a letter of 12 July 1908:
