Edward Livingston Youmans 81 



as to charm the student and make him wish for 

 more. The book had an immediate and signal 

 success ; in after years it was twice rewritten by 

 the author, to accommodate it to the rapid advances 

 made by the science, and it is still one of our best 

 textbooks of chemistry. It has had a sale of about 

 one hundred and fifty thousand copies. 



The publication of this book at once established 

 its author s reputation as a scientific writer, and in 

 another way it marked an era in his life. The 

 long, distressing period of darkness now came to 

 an end. Sight was so far recovered in one eye 

 that it became possible to go about freely, to read, 

 to recognize friends, to travel, and make much of 

 life. I am told that his face had acquired an ex 

 pression characteristic of the blind, but that expres 

 sion was afterward completely lost. When I knew 

 him it would never have occurred to me that his 

 sight was imperfect, except perhaps as regards 

 length of range. 



Youmans career as a scientific lecturer now 

 began. His first lecture was the beginning of 

 a series on the relations of organic life to the 

 atmosphere. It was illustrated with chemical ap 

 paratus, and was given in a private room in New 

 York to an audience which filled the room. Prob 

 ably no lecturer ever faced his first audience with- 



