n8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rope. Returning to Louisville in the autumn of that year, he continued 

 acting in his old capacity until the spring of 1852. Then he returned 

 to New Haven. At the time he was a student, no degrees were 

 granted by the college merely for proficiency in science. There was 

 a general feeling that the pursuit of it, like the pursuit of virtue, was 

 its own reward. But through the exertions of Professor Norton the 

 corporation of the college voted to create the degree of Bachelor of 

 Philosophy, and to grant it to those of the old students in the depart- 

 ment of science who would come back and pass a satisfactory exami- 

 nation. Accordingly, Mr. Brush returned, and, after undergoing ex- 

 amination, received, with six others, at the commencement of 1852, the 

 degree of Ph. B., the first time it was given by the college. 



The academic year 1852-'53 was now spent by him at the Uni- 

 versity of Virginia, where he was employed as assistant in the chemical 

 department. Here he was associated with Professor J. Lawrence Smith 

 in a series of special studies, the object of which was to reexamine a 

 number of American minerals which had been described as new spe- 

 cies. The results of their joint investigations were published in the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth volumes of the " American Journal of Science," 

 second series. At the end of the academic year Professor Brush went 

 to New York, where he was associated with Professor Silliman, Jr., in 

 charge of the mining and mineral departments of the Universal Ex- 

 position held that year in the city. But he now began to feel the 

 necessity of pursuing his studies to an extent which he was not able 

 to do in this country, especially at that time. Accordingly, in 1853, he 

 sailed for Europe, and, during one year at the University of Munich, 

 devoted himself to chemistry and mineralogy under Liebig, Yon Kobell, 

 and Pettenkofer. The year following that of 1854-55 he spent at 

 the Royal Mining Academy in Freiburg, Saxony. 



Just about this time an effort was being made at New Haven to 

 put the scientific department of Yale College in a more satisfactory po- 

 sition than it had previously held. To the building of it up Professor 

 Norton had sacrificed time and money, and, at last, his life ; and, after 

 the loss it sustained in his early death, it for a while continued to 

 exist rather than to live. Outside of a very small circle, nobody cared 

 for it, and it might at any moment have dropped entirely out of being, 

 and the larger portion of the academic world would not have known 

 enough of it even to regret its death. Modern science is so aggres- 

 sive, it occupies so prominent a position both in the theory and prac- 

 tice of education, that it is hard for us now to realize how low was 

 the estimation in which it was held in this country, even less than 

 thirty years ago. The academic department of Yale College numbered 

 at that period among its faculty the names of some men of science who 

 were held in honor throughout the country. Their reputation, in fact, 

 rather overshadowed that of most of their colleagues in other branches. 

 Still, so strong was the influence of ancient tradition, that the prevail- 



