OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 531 



graduate at Harvard no Chemistry was taught there. I have often 

 heard him say that he got his best guidance and iucitement towards 

 chemical study from the lectures of Professor Benjamin Silliman, the 

 elder, before the Lowell Institute, in the early days of that invalu- 

 able institution. Although he had never received any systematic 

 instruction in either Chemistry or Mineralogy, Mr. Cooke had ac- 

 quired a considerable knowledge of the elements of both these subjects 

 by 1849, and what is more, he had determined to be a teacher and a 

 man of science. On the 3d of July, 1849, he was appointed Tutor in 

 Mathematics in Harvard College, at the usual salary of |G45 a year. 

 Such an appointment seems almost incredible to the present genera- 

 tion, for he cannot be said to have received any professional training 

 in Mathematics. In his view it merely offered an entrance into the 

 Faculty of Harvard College. 



On the 24th of November following, " Mr. Tutor Cooke was ap- 

 pointed (by the Corporation) to teach Chemistry to the Freshman 

 Class next term. For this service, and for the apparatus and mate- 

 rials he may use, Mr. Cooke shall be paid $225." Such was the vote 

 of the Corporation. The edge of the wedge was very thin ; but it 

 made a sufficient entrance. At the same meeting the Corporation 

 voted, " As instruction in Chemistry for the undergraduates is no 

 longer to be required of the Erving Professor (J. W. Webster), 

 Voted,lLha.t for the rest of his services his salary be $1,000." Pro- 

 fessor Webster's salary from the College (he was Professor also in 

 the Medical School) had previously been |1,200. The Corporation 

 had therefore taken $200 from his salary and given it to Mr. Cooke. 

 It was an extraordinary coincidence that on the day before this 

 ominous vote was passed Dr. Webster had killed Dr. Parkman ; and 

 on the 30th of November he was arrested for the crime. . . . During 

 the ensuing term Mr. Cooke gave lectures to the Freshman Class, 

 and held recitations ; and then and there I, for one, first learned what 

 Chemistry was about, and what was the scientific method in observing 

 and reasoning. 



On the 25th of May, 1850, the Corporation voted, "That Mr. 

 Tutor Cooke, for the ensuing academic year, teach Mathematics to 

 the Freshman Class, and Chemistry to the Sophomore and Freshman 

 Classes, and Mineralogy to the Seniors, and that his salary shall be 

 $1,000, he providing at his own charge the consumable materials 

 necessary in performing chemical experiments." The frugality and 

 prudence of the Corporation appear in these money votes. They had 

 no idea of taking any great risk on the cost of illustrative materials ; 



