142 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



I early made the acquaintance of a celebrated practical 

 chemist, Frederick Accum, a German, but fully established 

 in London, and speaking the English language very intel- 

 ligibly. After frequenting his establishment near Soho 

 Square daily for many weeks, for purposes to be mentioned 

 hereafter. I became satisfied that I could employ him ad- 

 vantageously to obtain for me the desired chemical ap- 

 paratus. He was well acquainted with practical chemistry, 

 and was much resorted to to make chemical analyses and 

 examinations of many things ; he was to the Londoners 

 a pet chemist. He was a most obliging and kind-hearted 

 man ; and in ways which I will hereafter mention, as well 

 as in relation to apparatus and preparations, he was always 

 prompt to serve me, and would for that purpose go to the 

 end of London, if not to the end of the earth. He had 

 been, moreover, the operative assistant of Davy, in the Royal 

 Institution, and in that way had become familiar with the 

 requirements of philosophical chemistry and class instruc- 

 tion, as well as with the wants of the arts and economics. 

 In his house he kept a considerable variety of apparatus ; 

 and his extensive acquaintance with all dealers and man- 

 ufacturers of instruments enabled him to obtain all that I 

 wanted, better than I could do it myself in the immense 

 world of London, then (the summer of 1805) containing a 

 million of people, now, I suppose, two and a half millions. 



Before coming to England I had made myself familiar, 

 in a good degree, with popular chemistry, and having a 

 natural tact for manipulations, I was already a pretty expert 

 experimenter. I wished, however, to become acquainted 

 with difficult processes, and I therefore engaged Mr. Ac- 

 cum to give me private instructions, and to devote some 

 hour or hours to me daily in his working laboratory. He 

 then requested me to name the subjects with which I was 

 least acquainted, or not acquainted at all, and to them we 

 devoted our time and efforts. Among the subjects were the 

 analysis of ores, the formation of the crystallized vegetable 



