OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : JUNE 9, 1868. 27 



lege at Phillips Academy, Exeter, and entered Harvard University at 

 the age of fourteen. Immediately after graduation he entered the 

 army, and continued in active service as lieutenant of artillery till the 

 close of the war of 1812. He then studied medicine, and in 1818 re- 

 ceived the degree of M. D. from Harvard University. After practis- 

 ing as a physician, first at Gloucester, Massachusetts, and afterwards at 

 Waltham, he was led by his special fondness for chemistry to give up 

 his practice in order to engage in the manufacture of oil of vitriol and 

 other chemicals. Having continued to superintend the works of the 

 Newton Chemical Company for many years, he was in 1833 induced 

 to accept the position of Chemist of the Merrimack Print Works in 

 Lowell, a position which he held for the rest of his life. 



With a breadth of view deserving of all praise, the founders of the 

 Merrimack Manufacturing Company saw the importance of bringing 

 science to the aid of art, and, from the outset, considered a regular 

 chemist as indispensable in their print-works. When the first vacancy 

 occurred, they were particularly fortunate in securing the services of 

 Dr. Dana. Having an ardent love for science, rare aptness in tracing 

 out causes, and untiring perseverance in applying principles to prac- 

 tice, he thenceforth devoted himself most industriously to matters con- 

 nected with calico-printing. The first requisite for a good print is the 

 thorough bleaching of the cloth. Dr. Dana made a full study of this 

 subject, and succeeded in diminishing the number of operations which 

 had before been deemed essential. His ideas were made known to the 

 world by a communication sent to the Societe Industrielle de Mul- 

 house, and published, in pai-t, in their Bulletin in 1836. His plan at 

 first met with some opposition, but is now very generally used, and is 

 commonly known as the " American method " of bleaching. 



One of his earliest investigations related to the action of cow-dung 

 in clearing calico of the thickening used in printing on the mordant ; 

 and he was thus naturally led to inquire into the nature of manures in 

 general, and of the products of decay, then little understood, but after- 

 wards more fully investigated by Maiden and others, and distinguished 

 as gein, humin, and ulmin. The collateral knowledge thus acquired was 

 freely communicated to various friends, and awakened so great an in- 

 terest that he was urgently requested by some of his appreciative fel- 

 low-citizens to deliver a course of lectures on the Chemistry of Agri- 

 culture. The request was complied with in the winter of 1839-40. 

 The publication of these lectures being solicited as likely to prove of 



