98 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



and two of them, afterwards known as the Rev. John Codman, 

 D. D., of Boston, and Professor John Gorham, M. D., of Wash- 

 ington, were his familiar companions. The reader will be 

 disappointed if he turns to the Travels for an account of the 

 condition of science or of the methods employed for its promotion. 

 Two pages include all that he has here to say upon this subject, 

 but the deficiencies are fully supplied by the reminiscences 

 afterwards published by his biographer. 



The University of Edinburgh in its intellectual activity and 

 in its renown then surpassed any other university in the English- 

 speaking world. The records of its preeminence are abundant. 

 For example, Russell's recent biography of Sidney Smith throws 

 this sidelight upon the state of society not long before the arrival 

 of Silliman. 



The University of Edinburgh was then in its days of glory. 

 Dugald Stewart was Professor of Moral Philosophy; John Play- 

 fair, of Mathematics; John Hill, of Humanity. The teaching was 

 at once interesting and systematic, the intellectual atmosphere 

 liberal and enterprising. English parents who cared seriously for 

 mental and moral freeedom, such as the Duke of Somerset, the 

 Duke of Bedford, and Lord Lansdowne, sent their sons to Edin- 

 burgh instead of Oxford or Cambridge. The University was in 

 close relations with the Bar, then adorned by the great names of 

 Francis Jeffrey, Francis Horner, Henry Brougham, and Walter 

 Scott. While Michael Beach was duly attending the professorial 

 lectures, his tutor was not idle. From Dugald Stewart and 

 Thomas Brown, he acquired the elements of Moral Philosophy. 

 He gratified a lifelong fancy by attending the Clinical Lectures 

 given by Dr. Gregory in the hospitals of Edinburgh, and studied 

 Chemistry under Dr. Black. He amused himself with chemical 

 experiments. 



"I mix'd 4 of Holland gin with 8 of olive oil, and stirr'd them 

 well together. I then added 4 of nitric acid. A violent ebullition 

 ensued. Nitrous ether, as I suppos'd, was generated, and in about 

 four hours the oil became perfectly concrete, white and hard as 

 tallow." 



