Chemistry 615 



It was about this time that Smith was finishing his elab- 

 orate memoir on the " Reexamination of American Minerals," 

 which, according to the younger Silliman, was " the most 

 important contribution yet made by any American chemist." 

 It is not improbable, therefore, that the work begun while he 

 was in the University of Virginia was completed at the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. 



A year later it appears that a commodious room had been 

 fitted up with the necessary appliances for original research 

 in chemistry and other physical sciences ; still no regular 

 chemist was employed by the Institution, although Doctor 

 John D. Easter, who had studied chemistry for three years in 

 Germany, was allowed the use of the laboratory. For the 

 facilities afforded him he was required to keep the apparatus 

 in working order and to make such examinations of specimens 

 as would not require much labor. In the domain of chemistry 

 investigations were conducted on the application of some 

 newly-discovered substances to practical purposes in the arts, 

 and numerous examinations were made of minerals obtained 

 from the Pacific railroad and other expeditions. 



During the winter of 1855-56 George J. Chace, of Brown 

 University, delivered a course of six lectures on " Chemistry 

 Applied to the Arts." No lectures on subjects pertaining to 

 chemistry were delivered for the next two winters, but dur- 

 ing 1858-59 Thomas Clemson lectured on "Water" and on 

 " Nitrogen," and during the same season Josiah P. Cooke, 

 of Harvard College, delivered lectures on " Atmospheric Air." 

 "Oxygen and Zinc," "Nitrogen," "Water," " Carbon," etc. 

 These were followed, during 1859-60, by a course of six lec- 

 tures on "Agricultural Chemistry," by Samuel W. Johnson, 

 of Yale College, and later by five lectures treating of the 

 relation of chemistry to geology, by T. Sterry Hunt, then 

 of the Geological Survey of Canada. 



