CHAPTER V. 



THE BEGINNING OF HIS WORK AS PROFESSOR. 



His First Lectures in College (1804). Construction of the Subterranean 

 Laboratory. Its Alteration. Lectures to the Class of 1804-5 (in the 

 Fall of 1804). His Apparatus. Suggestions of Dr. Priestley. 

 Plan for Visiting Europe. Interview with President Dwight. Prep- 

 arations for Departure. Letter from Rev. John Pierpont. Letters of 

 Professor Silliman to his Brother. 



MY FIRST LECTURE. April 4, 1804. In a public room, 

 hired for college purposes, in Mr. Tuttle's building on 

 Chapel Street, nearly opposite to the South College, I met 

 the Senior class, and read to them an introductory lecture 

 on the history and progress, nature and objects, of chemis- 

 try. I was then twenty-four years old. and in August of 

 that year I was twenty-five. I continued to lecture, and I 

 believe in the same room, until the Senior class retired in 

 July, preparatory to their Commencement in September. 

 My first efforts were received with favor, and the class 

 which I then addressed contained men who were afterwards 

 distinguished in life. Among them were John C. Calhoun, 

 S. C. ; Rev. John Chester ; Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely ; Bishop 

 Gadsden ; John Preston, Hampton, Miss. ; Judge Hinman, 

 Conn. ; Dr. Lansing, N. Y. ; Rev. Dr. M c Ewen ; Rev. John 

 Marsh; Rev. John Pierpont, poet; Rev. Dr. Tyler, and 

 * others. On the 4th of April, ] 804, I commenced a course 

 of duty as a lecturer and professor, in which I was sus- 

 tained during fifty-one years ; and now, by God's blessing, 

 I am still in good health and power, sixty-five and a half 

 years from my entrance into Yale College ; sixty-one and 

 a half years from graduating ; fifty-eight and a half years 



