SKETCH OF PROF. BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, LED 261 



of books and philosophical and chemical apparatus. Professor Silliman 

 applied for the privilege of going as purchasing agent, suggesting that 

 his salary, which would be continued, and the agent's commission 

 would pay his expenses, and he would, at the same time, have an 

 opportunity of improving in his profession. His proposition was ac- 

 cepted ; armed with a multitude of letters of introduction, the general 

 effect of which he found to be equivalent to an order " Sir : Please 

 to give the bearer a dinner, and charge the same to yours," etc. he 

 spent a year in Europe. He performed experiments with Frederick 

 Accum, the German chemist, and attended the lectures of Dr. George 

 Pearson on chemistry, materia medica, and therapeutics, in London ; 

 heard Drs. Hope, Gregory, and Murray, in chemistry and geology ; 

 subscribed to Dr. Munroe's and attended Dr. Barclay's courses in 

 anatomy, at Edinburgh ; visited the Continent, and made the acquaint- 

 ance of the most eminent scientific men of the day. Geological science 

 at that time, he says, in his " Reminiscences," " did not exist among 

 us, except in the minds of a very few individuals, and instruction was 

 not attainable in any public institutions." In Edinburgh there were 

 learned and eloquent geologists and lecturers, and ardent and success- 

 ful explorers, and the contest between the Wernerians and the Hut- 

 tonians was at its height. Professor Silliman was interested in the 

 discussions, and, giving his attention to the subject, reached a stand- 

 ard of attainment in geology which he believed he could not have 

 gained at home. He read the arguments on both sides, and came to 

 the conclusion on which geologists are generally now tacitly agreed, 

 that " both theories were founded in truth, and that the crust of the 

 earth had been formed and greatly modified by the combined, or some- 

 times antagonistic and conflicting, powers of fire and water." 



Professor Silliman had already attended to the care of the modest 

 collections of minerals belonging to the college. There were a few 

 metallic ores which had been named by Dr. Adam Seybert, of Phila- 

 delphia ; a small collection which Dr. Semper had brought from Eng- 

 land, containing some beautiful specimens, particularly in the lime 

 family ; and his own collections made in the mines of Derbyshire and 

 Cornwall, in England, and local specimens obtained in his rambles 

 among the trap-rocks of the Scottish capital, with a purchased suite 

 of Italian polished marbles, all of which " when arranged, labeled, 

 and described in illustration of the mineral portion of the chemical 

 lectures, served to awaken an interest in the subject of mineralogy, 

 and to produce both aspirations and hopes looking toward a collec- 

 tion which should by-and-by deserve the name of a cabinet." One of 

 the first things to be done after returning home was to study the geol- 

 ogy of the vicinity of New Haven, in the light of the knowledge that 

 had been gained in Edinburgh. The result of this survey was a re- 

 port, printed in the first volume of the " Transactions " of the Connec- 

 ticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, in which an attentive reperusal 



