510 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



and of science, a more congenial field of labor presented itself to the 

 young college tutor in the rapidly expanding domain of Chemistry ; 

 and we can imagine how readily he consented, at the solicitation of Dr. 

 Dwight, the President of Yale, to renounce his proposed profession 

 and to accept the chair of Chemistry, then for the first time established 

 in the College. 



To prepare himself for this position he spent some time under the 

 instruction of Dr. Woodhouse, the celebrated Professor of Chemistry in 

 the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1805 made a visit to Europe ; 

 in the course of which he attended the lectures of eminent professors 

 in London and Edinburgh, travelled over the mining districts of Eng- 

 land, and gathered for the College books, apparatus, and other facilities 

 for illustrating chemical and physical science. 



Returning thus equipped, he resumed the duties of the chair in 

 which he had already made a beginning, and entered upon that career 

 as a college teacher and public lecturer, in which his ready and impres- 

 sive elocution and his attractive presence, as well as the clearness and 

 value of his instructions, soon won the interest of his pupils, and in later 

 years marked him as a popular expounder of science. 



In the College lecture-room and laboratory his genial enthusiasm 

 kindled a taste for experimental and natural science, and gathered 

 around him many eager spirits whose scientific labors have in later 

 years given proof of the value of his hearty, enthusiastic teaching. 



For some years Professor SiUiraan's instructions were confined to 

 the department of Chemistry, in which his tact in manipulation was 

 scarcely more remarkable than the dehght with which, it is said, he 

 seemed to enjoy his own experiments, as if, hke the class, he had never 

 before witnessed them. After a time, he added to the course on Chem- 

 istry one on Mineralogy and another on Geology, in both of which he 

 soon surrounded himself with earnest students, of whom not a few in 

 after years became known as dihgent collectors or as scientific ex- 

 plorei's. 



The inspiring influence which Professor Silliman exerted as a col- 

 lege teacher shines forth in the fact that so many of the minds which 

 he aroused to the study of nature have been successful investigators 

 and teachers in different portions of the country, and tliat all his pupils, 

 whether devoted to science or letters, bear testimony to the interest 

 which he awakened in their pursuits. 



Nor was it simply his enkindling influence as an instructor that 



