BENJAMIN SILLIMAN 97 



Some gun-barrels also, he said, would be of much service; and I 

 had brought from Philadelphia an old blacksmith's furnace, which 

 served for the heating of the iron tubes. He said, moreover, that 

 sand and bran (coarse Indian meal is better), with soap, would 

 make the hands clean, and that there was no sin in dirt." 



Not long after the commencement of his duties, the College 

 determined to spend $10,000 in the purchase of books and 

 apparatus. Silliman was intrusted with this responsibility and 

 at the end of March, 1805, sailed for Europe. He had given 

 lectures during the winter at the rate of four in a week, in all 

 " sixty lectures or more, including some notices of Mineralogy." 

 Of his travels in England, Holland and Scotland, a very enter- 

 taining narrative was published in 1810. Few books of the 

 time had a wider circulation. Repeated editions were called 

 for, and ten years after the original publication, the book was 

 reissued with additions from the original manuscripts of the 

 author. The introductions which the young man carried with 

 him brought him into acquaintance with many of the most 

 distinguished men of the day. Among others whom he seems to 

 have seen familiarly, may be named Sir Joseph Banks, the Presi- 

 dent of the Royal Society, Watt, the improver of the steam- 

 engine, then a man of seventy years of age, Mr. Greville whose 

 fine collection of minerals was subsequently added to the British 

 Museum, Dr. Wollaston, the Secretary of the Royal Society, 

 Mr. Cavendish, the distinguished chemist, Rennel the geographer, 

 and many more. He saw something of the Clapham circle, 

 particularly William Wilberforce, Mr. Thornton and Lord Teign- 

 mouth. Sir Humphry Davy, then about twenty-five years of 

 age and "of an appearance more youthful than might have been 

 expected from his years/' was only in town for a day or two 

 before Silliman's departure, but a brief visit to this great man 

 made a strong impression upon the young American. 



After a short journey in Holland and Belgium, of which he 

 has left extended accounts, Silliman proceeded to Edinburgh 

 where he spent the winter of 1805-06. About thirty Americans, 

 most of them from the South, were then enrolled as students, 



