108 GEORGE JARVIS BRUSH— DANA. l *" ton *\%;™vtt 



a position which he retained till the spring of 1852. During this period, in the spring and 

 summer of 1851, he traveled extensively in Europe as one of the party of the elder Proj. Ben- 

 jamin Silliman. At the Yale commencement of 1852, after a special examination made necessary 

 by the absence alluded to, he received the new degree of Ph. B. just established. It is most 

 interesting that the man who was destined to budd up this department of the institution into 

 the strong and flourishing Sheffield Scientific School should have been a member of the first 

 class to receive a degree. In this class of 1852, which began with 14 members, 7 were graduated, 

 4 of whom later became prominent in science, and one of these, Prof. William H. Brewer, worked 

 shoulder to shoulder with Brush in the work for the school for many years. 



The college year of 1852-53 was spent as assistant in chemistry at the University of 

 Virginia, and it was here that, associated with Prof. J. Lawrence Smith, a series of studies 

 were prosecuted on the "reexamination of American minerals"; three papers with this title 

 were published in volumes 15 and 16 of the American Journal of Science. This work in mineral 

 chemistry served to show both his abdity in research, his grasp of scientific methods, and his 

 interest in the subject. It also made him feel the necessity of further scientific study and 

 training. After spending the summer of 1853 as assistant in charge of the department of 

 mineralogy in the Crystal Palace at the International Exposition in New York, he saded in the 

 following November to Germany. The years 1853 to 1855 were spent in Germany, at first 

 at Munich with Liebig, von Kobell, and Pettenkofer, and later at the mini ng school at Freiberg, 

 Saxony. These years were rich in results, not only in the scientific training they gave, but 

 also in the opportunities for close association with his professors and feUow students. 



In 1855 Mr. Brush was elected professor of metallurgy at New Haven, in the Yale Scientific 

 School that had been slowly developing ever since its beginning in 1846. To train himself 

 for his future work he spent another year abroad, studying at the Royal School of Mines in 

 London and also visiting the chief mines and smelting works of Great Britain and the continent. 

 In January, 1857, he entered upon the duties of his professorship of metallurgy; later, in 1864, 

 his chair was broadened so as to include mineralogy, and in 1871 it was finaUy limited to the 

 latter subject, the one in which he was particularly interested. Of his work after the time 

 when he became professor in the Scientific School, one who was later his colleague for many 

 years wrote of him in 1881 : ' 



From this time on the history of Prof. Brush has been the history of the special scientific department of Yale 

 College, which, in 1860, owing to the liberal benefactions of Mr. Joseph E. Sheffield, received the name of the Sheffield 

 Scientific School. He came to it while it was not only without reputation, but without appreciation or expectation. 

 He came to it while it was poor beyond even that decent poverty which apparently belongs, in the nature of things, 

 to institutions of learning — while it was in a state of mind so unorganized that as a whole it could hardly be said to 

 have a being at all. It exhibited, indeed, a good deal of life in the college catalogue, but beyond that its vitality 

 did not extend. There was vigor enough in certain of its departments, expecially in that of civil engineering, under 

 the charge of Prof. William A. Norton; but in such cases it was a vigor due to the energy of the individual instructor, 

 and therefore almost certain to disappear whenever he disappeared. To bring these scattered units into an organic whole, 

 to build up a complete and consistent scheme of scientific education, which should have both definite and lofty aims, 

 which should train men thoroughly in scientific methods, and which should continue to exist by its own inherent 

 vitality after the men who established it should have passed away — all this became by degrees a main work of Prof. 

 Brush's life. His energy, his judgment, his executive capacity, and his devotion soon gave him the leading direction 

 in the affairs of the institution. He was for a long period its secretary; he has always been its treasurer; and when, 

 in 1872, a more formal organization of its faculty was felt to be desirable, he was elected as its presiding officer, a position 

 which he still retains. Others have done their part toward developing various departments of the school, but its 

 growth, as a whole, the position which it has acquired among scientific institutions, whatever that position may be, 

 has been due to him very much more than to any other one man connected with it. * * * 



In 1872, as above stated, Prof. Brush was made director of the Sheffield Scientific School, 

 to which he had already devoted 15 years of his life. This position he held until 1898, 

 when he resigned his active duties, both professorial and administrative. His time and energies 

 of necessity were, from 1872 on, more and more absorbed by the labor of planning for the 

 school as a whole and caring for its many interests. In 1873, Dr. George W. Hawes was 



1 Popular Science Monthly, vol. 20, pp. 119, 120, November, 1881. 



