EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS. 5 



initiative is so strong that if opportunities are not offered they 

 will somehow contrive to create them. When Edward Yonmans 

 was about thirteen years old he persuaded his father to buy him a 

 copy of Comstock's Natural Philosophy. This book he studied 

 at home by himself, and repeated many of the experiments with 

 apparatus of his own contriving. "When he made a centrifugal 

 water-wheel, and explained to the men and boys of the neighbor- 

 hood the principle of its revolution in a direction opposite to that 

 of the stream which moved it, we may regard it as his earliest at- 

 tempt at giving scientific lectures. It was natural that one who 

 had become interested in physics should wish to study chemistry. 

 The teacher (who was not " Uncle Good ") had never so much as 

 laid eyes on a text-book of chemistry ; but Edward was not to be 

 daunted by such trifles. A copy of Comstock's manual was pro- 

 cured, another pupil was found willing to join in the study, and 

 this class of two proceeded to learn what they could from reading 

 the book, while the teacher asked them the printed questions — 

 those questions the mere existence of which in text-books is apt to 

 show what a low view publishers take of the average intelligence 

 of teachers ! It was not a very hopeful way of studying such a 

 subject as chemistry ; but doubtless the time was not wasted, and 

 the foundations for a future knowledge of chemistry were laid. 

 The experience of farm-work which accompanied these studies ex- 

 plains the interest which in later years Mr. Youmans felt in agri- 

 cultural chemistry. He came to realize how crude and primitive 

 are our methods of making the earth yield its produce, and it was 

 his opinion that, when men have once learned how to conduct 

 agriculture upon sound scientific principles, farming will become 

 at once the most wholesome and the most attractive form of 

 human industry. 



Along with the elementary studies in science there went a 

 great deal of miscellaneous reading, mostly, it would appear, of 

 good solid books. Apparently there was at that time no study of 

 languages, ancient or modern. At the age of seventeen the young 

 man had shown so much promise that it was decided he should 

 study law, and he had already entered upon a more extensive 

 course of preparation in an academy in Saratoga County when the 

 event occurred which changed the whole course of his life. He 

 had been naturally gifted with keen and accurate vision, was a 

 good sportsman and an excellent shot with a rifle, but at about 

 the age of thirteen there had come an attack of ophthalmia which 

 left the eyes weak and sensitive. Perpetual reading probably in- 

 creased the difficulty and hindered complete recovery. At the age 

 of seventeen violent inflammation set in, the sight in one eye was 

 completely lost, while in the other it grew so dim as to be of little 

 avail. Sometimes he would be just able to find his way about the 



