38 



rangement was made by Prof. Silliman with Prof. Johns- 

 ton, the distinguished professor of ehemistry, in the la- 

 boratory of the Agricultural Chemical Association in 

 Edinburgh, to receive him as a pupil. He left this coun- 

 try in the spring of 1844, and remained in Edinburgh 

 till the spring of 1846. 



Mr. Norton was well prepared to take advantage of the 

 valuable instructions now within his reach. He had 

 been a diligent student for six years — a period sufficiently 

 long to have carried him through a collegiate and almost 

 a professional course of study ; for the interruption by 

 the labors of the summer, would not amount to much 

 more than the usual vacations in college and professional 

 schools. He was quite well acquainted with the French 

 language, and could read German with ease. He had 

 enjoyed the best instruction in chemistry which the 

 country afforded, and was, indeed, already a good prac- 

 tical chemist. He felt too that he was now entering upon 

 an extensive field of usefulness — that he was laboring in 

 the service of his country — and that on his return, he 

 would possess a power for good within his sphere which 

 would perhaps belong to no other one of his countrymen. 

 He entered upon his studies, therefore, with the greatest 

 enthusiasm. He spent all the working hours of the day- 

 light — from nine o'clock in the morning till six in the 

 afternoon — without interruption, in the laboratory, while 



