SKETCH OF PROF. BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, LL.D. 259 



ly, although whistling would seem to be as natural an act as that of 

 laughing, yet we are told by Mr. Shortland that it was formerly un- 

 known among the New-Zealanders.* When, too, on one occasion a 

 native of Burniah observed an American missionary whistling, he ex- 

 claimed in astonishment, " Why ! he makes music with his mouth ! " 

 a remark which the missionary noted down in his journal with this 

 note : " It is remarkable that the Burmese are entirely ignorant of 

 whistling." f Gentleman's Magazine. 



SKETCH OF PROFESSOR BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, LL. D 



THE name of Professor Benjamin Silliman is intimately connected 

 with the progress of science in the United States during the for- 

 mer half of this century, and is identified with the beginning of the 

 study of American geology. 



Benjamin Silliman was born in North Stratford (now Trumbull), 

 Connecticut, on the 8th of August, 1779. His oldest American ances- 

 tor on the father's side was believed to have been an emigrant from 

 Holland, but there are reasons for presuming that he belonged to an 

 Italian Protestant family that took refuge in Switzerland, and one of 

 whose members afterward came to America, possibly sojourning for a 

 short time in Holland. His grandfather was a graduate from Yale 

 College, a Judge of the Superior Court of the colony, a member of 

 the Governor's Council, and influential in public affairs. His father 

 served with credit during the Revolutionary War as a brigadier-general, 

 and enjoyed the confidence of Washington. On his mother's side he 

 was descended from John Alden and Priscilla Muggins, of the May- 

 flower. After attending for a time the public school of his neighbor- 

 hood, he prepared for college under the tuition of his pastor, the Rev. 

 Andrew Eliot, and entered Yale College in 1792, the youngest but one 

 in his class. He spent the year after his graduation at home, caring 

 for his mother's farm ; the next year he took charge of a select school 

 in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and entered the law-office of the Hon. 

 Simeon Baldwin, in New Haven, whence, after completing his three 

 years' course in law, he was admitted to the bar in 1802. While still 

 a law-student in September, 1799 and when he had just reached the 

 age of twenty, he was appointed a tutor in Yale College. 



Up to this time classical instruction had received the predominant 

 share of attention at Yale College, "theological, ethical, and meta- 

 physical subjects were much cultivated, and logic was also a prominent 

 topic ; mathematics was appreciated ; much interest had been aroused 



* "Traditions of the New-Zealanders," p. 134. 



f Howard Malcolm, "Travels in Southeastern Asia," 1839, i, 205. 



