CHAPTER V. 



THE BEGINNING OF HIS WORK AS PROFESSOR. 



His First Lectures in College (1804). Construction of the Subterranean 

 Laboratory. Its Alteration. Lectures to the Class of 1804-5 (in the 

 Fall of 1804). His Apparatus. Suggestions of Dr. Priestley. 

 Plan for Visiting Europe. Interview with President Dwight. Prep 

 arations for Departure. Letter from Rev. John Pierpont. Letters of 

 Professor Silliraan to his Brother. 



MY FIRST LECTURE. April 4, 1804. In a public room, 

 hired for college purposes, in Mr. Tuttle's building on 

 Chapel Street, nearly opposite to the South College, I met 

 the Senior class, and read to them an introductory lecture 

 on the history and progress, nature and objects, of chemis 

 try. I was then twenty-four years old. and in August of 

 that year I was twenty-five. I continued to lecture, and I 

 believe in the same room, until the Senior class retired in 

 July, preparatory to their Commencement in September. 

 My first efforts were received with s favor, and the class 

 which I then addressed contained men who wejre afterwards 

 distinguished in life. Among them were John C. Calhoun, 

 S. C. ; Rev. John Chester ; Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely ; Bishop 

 Gadsden ; John Preston, Hampton, Miss. ; Judge Hinman, 

 Conn. ; Dr. Lansing, N. Y. ; Rev. Dr. M c Ewen ; Rev. John 

 Marsh; Rev. John Pierpont, poet; Rev. Dr. Tyler, and 

 others. On the 4th of April, 1 804, 1 commenced a course 

 of duty as a lecturer and professor, in which I was sus 

 tained during fifty-one years ; and now, by God's blessing, 

 I am still in good health and power, sixty-five and a half 

 years from my entrance into Yale College ; sixty-one and 

 a half years from graduating ; fifty-eight and a half years 



