304 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



aid me, that they might come and see what we were doing, 

 and I should much prefer that they should do nothing ; for 

 then they would not hinder me and my trained assistants, 

 nor derange or break the apparatus. 



Again being at Wallingford, the same good lady, Mrs. 

 Noyes, wife of the Rev. James Noyes, on being informed 

 that an assistant was needed in my department in Yale 

 College, recommended a young gentleman of Wallingford, 

 Mr. Sherlock J. Andrews, a son of an eminent physician 

 of that place, and a recent graduate of Union College, 

 Schenectady. Mr. Andrews readily accepted the offer, and 

 came with me to New Haven, to be ready to commence the 

 business of the term. A pleasant chamber was assigned 

 to him in the North College, opposite to President Day. 

 The choice of Mr. Andrews was a happy one. He was a 

 young man of a vigorous, active mind, and energetic and 

 quick in his decisions and movements ; of a warm heart, 

 and a genial temper and temperament ; of the best moral 

 and social habits ; a quick and skilful penman, an agree- 

 able inmate of my family, in which we made him quite at 

 home ; and in short, we found that we had acquired an 

 interesting and valuable friend, as well as a good profes- 

 sional assistant. It is true he had, when he came, no ex- 

 perience in practical chemistry. He had everything to 

 learn, but he learned rapidly, because he had zeal, industry, 

 talent, and love of knowledge, and before the end of the 

 first term he had proved that we had made a happy choice. 







Mr. Silliman interrupts his account of the services 

 rendered by Mr. Andrews, for the purpose of describ- 

 ing his exertions at this time for the restoration of 

 his health, which had become seriously impaired. 

 The death of his son, Trumbull, and also of an in- 

 fant daughter, in 1819, has already been mentioned. 



