OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 517 



by him, although tolerated in the School only as extras. It was at 

 this time that he prepared and delivered a long course of lectures on 

 organic chemistry to satisfy a wholly unintelligent demand on the 

 part of the medical students, to which he alludes later as a monument 

 of useless labor ; but this was not the case, as the familiarity thus 

 gained with a field so different from that which he cultivated in after 

 life had a most excellent effect in broadening his view of the science. 

 It was a great relief to him when, in 1857, he was freed from his duties 

 at the Medical School, the apparatus made its last journey over the 

 bridge, and henceforward he was able to devote his time and energy 

 to the development of the chemical department of Harvard College. 



But it must not be inferred that during these early years all his 

 attention was given to teaching, as his first scientific paper, that on 

 the Classification of the Elements, dates from this period, since it was 

 published in 1854. It created a marked sensation when, in December, 

 1853, he presented it to our Academy, to which he had been elected 

 in the previous year. Benjamin Peirce in particular hailed it as a 

 wonderful discovery, and this, as Cooke once told me, had a bad effect 

 on his subsequent work for many years, both by keeping him from 

 many excellent researches because they did not promise far-reaching 

 theoretical results, and by making him try to find such results in all 

 the work that he did. These tendencies unfortunately were not coun- 

 teracted by association with other chemists, for, although he had many 

 scientific acquaintances, he was singularly unwilling to discuss chemi- 

 cal subjects with them, owing, it would seem, to a natural sensitiveness 

 and reticence inherited from his father, and not modified by study in 

 one of the large foreign laboratories, where a man learns among other 

 useful lessons that all scientific men are comrades. It took him 

 twenty years to shake off this habit of mind, and to grow into a better 

 and therefore more prolific mood in reference to research. 



The year 1858 was a most important epoch in his life, as at this 

 time the proper method of chemical instruction was recognized by the 

 acceptance of the experimental course in qualitative analysis as a 

 regular elective study in the College, and also satisfactory laboratory 

 accommodations were provided by the erection of Boylston Hall. 



In the ten years that followed no new courses were added, but that 

 already established was perfected, and its success gradually accus- 

 tomed the College authorities to the new method of instruction, and 

 prepared them for the further advance at the end of this period. But 

 although these years from 1858 to 1868 show no striking changes 

 in the curriculum or very important papers, they are rich in literary 



