Abstract
This study attempts to grasp the actual situation of the Hyakukou Kagaku Ka (Industrial Chemistry Course) in Niigata School and also deals with the process and background of closing in 1880, 4 years after its establishment. 56 students were admitted to the Hyakukou Kagaku Ka in total and 17 students completed this course. The main academic subject was analytical chemistry and the promotion of the textile industry and the petroleum industry was targeted. In the Niigata Prefectural Assembly, the closing of the Hyakukou Kagaku Ka was decided for the reason that the major industry of Niigata Prefecture is agriculture and industrial chemistry is not so pressing and students are a few in reality. Local leaders, members of the Prefectural Assembly, who actually promote policy standing between local officials and local inhabitants and best know the community, believe that a policy promoting industry by means of industrial chemistry, proposed by local government officials is impractical and the actual requisite is agriculture. Investigating the situation of the textile industry and the petroleum industry in Niigata Prefecture in those days, we pointed out that both industries were not in a situation to receive engineers who studied industrial chemistry and it was 1900's after about 25 years that these engineers were to be demanded.
