532 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



but Mr. Cooke was fortunately indifferent on that subject. He had 

 resources which enabled him to provide all necessary furniture, appar- 

 atus, and materials ; and he used these resources with liberal good 

 sense. He got possession in this first year of the lower northern lec- 

 ture room in University Hall, and of a room about twenty by twenty- 

 five feet in area in the northwestern corner of the basement of the 

 same hall. There he fitted up the only chemical laboratory on the 

 premises of Harvard College. There was already a good laboratory 

 across Kirkland Street, in the new building of the Lawrence Scientific 

 School ; but with that the College had nothing to do. There was neither 

 gas nor running water in University Hall, and Mr. Cooke's nearest 

 neighbor on the adjoining corner of the basement was a baker's oven, 

 where considerable batches of bread were baked every morning and 

 every evening, and yeast was sold every afternoon. A pump in the 

 cellar yielded water for both bakery and laboratory, and within fifty 

 feet of the pump was a privy which served for the whole College. 



On the 10th of July, 1850, Professor Webster's resignation was 

 accepted. The young tutor had completed his plans for the ensuing 

 year ; but, for some reason which cannot now be determined, he pro- 

 cured a vote of the Corporation to settle one part of his plan. On 

 the 31st of August, 1850, the President and Fellows voted, "That 

 Stockhardt's Principles of Chemistry be adopted as a text-book, in the 

 College." I know of no other instance within the last fifty years in 

 which the President and Fellows have passed a vote concerning the 

 adoption of a text-book. 



On the 30th of December, 1850, Mr. Cooke was elected Erving 

 Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy, at the age of twenty-three. 

 He had already demonstrated to the satisfaction of the Corporation 

 that he was an efficient and prudent manager in business details, an 

 interesting lecturer, and a zealous and singleminded College official. 

 His salary was fixed at $1,200, " he paying all the expenses of his 

 lectures, excepting that of fuel in Cambridge, the salary to commence 

 on the first of March next." Again, a frugal arrangement which did 

 not in the least discourage the youthful professor. 



The vote describing his duties is an interesting one, for it illustrates 

 the extraordinary expectation which it was then held reasonable to 

 entertain concerning the teaching capacities of a youth of twenty- 

 three : — 



" Voted, that he shall reside in Cambridge, and be a member of 

 the College Faculty, and that he shall give the lectures in the Medi- 

 cal College in Boston, and all the instruction required in Chemistry, 



