LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



study of the topic, to give back the lecture with its ex- 

 periments to the teacher and their fellows of the class. 

 He was an enthusiast in his own line of study and in- 

 struction. Besides his lectures in the lecture-room, he 

 scoured the country round, either with or without his 

 pupils, showed them where to go in pursuit of whatever 

 was instructive or curious, assisted them in the naming 

 and care of their specimens, and inspired them with new 

 zeal for natural science. During the long summer vaca- 

 tions he made lengthy excursions with half a dozen or 

 more of his class to distant parts of the State or the 

 neighboring ones, visiting localities that abounded in 

 particular rocks or minerals, and bringing home stores for 

 their own or the school collection. These excursions 

 were made almost wholly on foot, a single horse and 

 wagon accompanying the party to carry their scanty ward- 

 robe and relieve the oft-burdened mineral satchel worn 

 by each of them, until such time as they reached a suitable 

 place for shipment. 



" After some three years of service, this intelligent, 

 amiable, earnest teacher withdrew to become Professor 

 of Chemistry and Botany in the Medical School of Wood- 

 stock, Vermont. He died in 1838. 



" He was succeeded (in 1829) by Dr. Asa Gray, sub- 

 sequently the well-known Professor of Botany at Harvard. 

 A native of the neighboring town of Sauquoit, Dr. Gray 

 had but recently finished his course at the Medical School 

 at Fairfield, where he had before been a pupil of the 

 Academy. He was quite as well informed as Mr. Edger- 

 ton had been, as eager and as sympathetic in the cultiva- 

 tion of science, and in all respects as capable and as 

 beloved a teacher. Botany was even then his chief de- 

 light, and his application to it was most diligent. It is 

 told of him in his biography that early in 1828 he pro- 

 cured a copy of Eaton's Text-book of Botany and be- 

 gan by himself to analyze and discover the names of 

 plants he gathered. Afterwards when at Fairfield he 

 received some assistance from Prof. James Hadley, father 

 of the eminent Greek scholar of Yale. His flashing eye, 

 and his cry of exultation as he bounded forward to seize 

 a new plant which he spied at a distance, while botanizing 

 with his class, no member of that class who is alive can 

 forget, any more than they can his courteous and sprightly 



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