282 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



Dr. J. P. Kirkland, of Ohio, wrote to his niece, 

 residing in New Haven, under date of January 1, 

 1860:-^ 



" It hardly seems possible that Professor Silliman can be 

 active. In the year 1806, soon after his return from his 

 first visit to Europe, I listened with great interest to the 

 details of his tour, while he was relating them to Augustus 

 and Chauncey Cook in Wallingford, where he was visiting 

 his mother. I was a mere boy, but looked upon him as 

 quite a mature man. His first journal of travels I read 

 and re-read soon after its publication. To him I feel that a 

 heavy debt of gratitude is due from me. In the autumn of 

 1813, I commenced attending his chemical and mineral- 

 ogical lectures in New Haven, and they awakened a taste 

 for scientific investigations which have afforded the larger 

 share of my enjoyments and pleasure through life. Be- 

 sides, he extended to me, on several occasions, some little 

 favors, principally through the medium of Lyman Foot, 

 who then was a lad in the employment of Professor Silli- 

 man. These favors to me were trivial, to be sure ; but he 

 had a way of doing acts with an unaffected kindness which 

 few possess. From childhood I had heard the College, its 

 Faculty, and especially its President, spoken of with dis- 

 respect. The epithet of Pope was ever attached to the 

 name of Dr. Dwight. I viewed him and his associates as 

 imperious tyrants. Personal knowledge of Professor Silli- 

 man induced me to make him an exception. Prejudice 

 thus imbibed had led me to pursue my studies at the Epis- 

 copal Academy at Cheshire rather than in Yale. When 

 about to attend medical lectures, I prepared to resort to 

 either New York or Philadelphia. A kind message, sent 

 from Professor Silliman, caused me to visit New Haven 

 and to enter the Yale Medical College. Either by design 

 or accident, I was thrown in the way of President Dwight, 

 and made his acquaintance. After a brief period, I formed 



