YOUMANS, EDWARD LIVINGSTON. 



809 



recover his vision ; short intervals of improved 

 sight alternated with long periods of total 

 blindness. The mental depression incident to 

 this experience was deepened by the severity 

 of his struggle for bread. He managed to pay 

 his way by assiduous literary toil in various 

 fields; but the incidental hardships of his lot 

 did much to retard his recovery of sight. 

 Friendship, however, won by his intelligence, 

 courage, and address, he enjoyed in many use- 

 ful quarters. To the end of his life he recalled 

 with feeling kind services rendered him in 

 days of poverty and blindness. In 1845, the 

 sixth year of his residence in New York, his 

 sister, Miss Eliza Ann Youmans, came to live 

 with him and aid him in his work. 



While earning a livelihood with his pen, Mr. 

 Youmans prosecuted a course of scientific 



EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOCMANS. 



study, centering his interest in the chemistry 

 of agriculture. His blindness made it impossi- 

 ble for him to see chemical experiments, much 

 less perform them, so that he could form clear 

 conceptions of chemical fact and law only 

 by asking many questions and applying him- 

 self perseveringlv to study of the information 

 he received. His difficulties as a student, 

 faithfully overcome, enabled him, when he 

 took up the task of exposition, to make clear 

 and interesting to others the knowledge he had 

 with so much pains first made clear to himself. 

 While occupied one day with the subject of 

 presenting chemistry attractively and intelli- 

 gibly to those uninformed about it, he planned 

 a graphical method of picturing to" the eye the 

 principal compounds of chemistry and their 

 component atoms. His " Chemical Chart " re- 

 sulted. It won acceptance at once as a valu- 

 able aid in teaching chemistry, and from edu- 

 cators throughout the country came requests 

 that the author should prepare a book to go 

 with it. Mr. Youmans then applied himself 

 to this task, his sister acting as reader and 



amanuensis. Carefully studying the standard 

 chemical text-books of the day, he found them 

 technical, abstract, and diffuse quite unsuited 

 for such common schools as he had attended 

 when a boy. Keeping in mental view such 

 pupils as he himself had been, he dictated his 

 " Class-Book of Chemistry." Its style was BO 

 simple and clear, its presentation so animated 

 by an evident love of the subject, its illustra- 

 tions from every-day matters so well chosen, 

 that the volume sprang into popularity at 

 once. With its two subsequent and rewritten 

 editions, the " Class-Book " has found more 

 acceptance than any other work on chemistry 

 ever issued. In 1854 Mr. Youmans published 

 a " Chemical Atlas," an extension of the meth- 

 od employed in the " Chart." It presented 

 pictorially the chemical changes involved in 

 combustion, respiration, fermentation, and the 

 solar influences exerted on the earth. The 

 atlas was accompanied by text as lucid as that 

 of the " Class-Book." 



His success as author of these publications 

 determined his career. Debarred from adding 

 to science by original research, he decided to 

 devote himself to the work of making science 

 known and appreciated by the common people. 

 His remarkable gifts in conversation soon led 

 to his being asked to lecture on the topics that 

 so much interested him. His talents in eluci- 

 dation and enthusiasm of manner filled the 

 halls wherever he appeared. His lectures, de- 

 livered throughout the United States, com- 

 prised courses on the " Relations of the Living 

 World to the Atmosphere," the " Chemistry 

 of the Sunbeam," and the " Dynamics of Life." 

 In 1856, the year after its publication, Mr. 

 Youmans read Mr. Herbert Spencer's "Psy- 

 chology," and was so much impressed with its 

 ability that a correspondence with the author 

 ensued, resulting in the publication in New 

 York of Mr. Spencer's essays on education. 

 The acquaintance with Mr. Spencer soon 

 ripened into a friendship which lasted to the 

 end of Mr. Youraans's life, and largely deter- 

 mined his course as the chief popularizer in 

 America of the philosophy of evolution. In 

 1866, when Mr. Spencer's losses from his works 

 had compelled him to suspend publication. 

 Mr. Youmans raised a subscription of $7,000 

 among the American admirers of the English 

 philosopher, enabling him to resume his plans. 



Convinced that one of the principal fields 

 for science was in its application to household 

 economy, Mr. Youmans published in 1857 his 

 " Hand-Book of Household Science." It was 

 characterized by the same good style as the 

 " Class-Book," and proved very successful. In 

 1864 he puMished the "Correlation and Con- 

 servation of Forces," a collection of expositions 

 by eminent scientists of the new theory of the 

 relations of forces. His introduction to tho 

 volume set forth the work done in America 

 toward establishing the new philosophy. 

 Three years later he issued the " Culture de- 

 manded by Modern Life," presenting the views 



