THE SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL. 275 



experimental and analytical chemistry was com- 

 menced. Among the earliest students under this new 

 arrangement was Mr. John P. Norton, afterwards Pro- 

 fessor of Agricultural Chemistry in Yale College ; 

 and Mr. T. Sterry Hunt, since among the most dis- 

 tinguished men of science in the United States. 

 These studies were entirely optional, and the stu- 

 dents were not even recognized as members of the 

 College, their names not appearing upon the cata- 

 logue. It was soon evident, however, that these very 

 limited and imperfect means of instruction met a 

 want which had long been felt in the country. Pro- 

 fessor Silliman was the first to recognize this want, 

 and with his accustomed zeal and sagacity, set 

 about providing a way to meet it. Liebig's popular 

 writings on Agricultural Chemistry had appeared 

 just before this time, and excited everywhere an 

 active desire in the public mind for more and better 

 means of instruction in science, particularly in agri- 

 cultural and other branches of applied chemistry. 

 Young Norton had been moved by this cause to seek 

 the desired instruction in Professor Silliman's labora- 

 tory, and developed so much genuine love of scien- 

 tific investigation, that Professor Silliman urged him 

 to prosecute his studies abroad. With this view he 

 accepted the situation of private student in the lab- 

 oratory of Professor J. F. W. Johnston, who was then, 

 under the auspices of the Highland Society, laboring 

 in the department of Scientific Agricultural Chemis- 

 try in Edinburgh. It was Professor Silliman who 

 secured for Mr. Norton this eligible situation, where 

 he soon won the esteem of his teacher and where his 

 original paper on the oat, carried off the prize which 



