THE BEGINNING OF HIS WORK AS PROFESSOR. 125 



small collection of apparatus which I had got together was 

 duly arranged, and things began to look like work. Ar- 

 rangements were made for furnaces, and for the introduc- 

 tion of water from a neighboring well. The tables were 

 covered with green cloth ; the stone floor was sprinkled 

 with white beach-sand ; the walls and ceiling were white- 

 washed ; the backs and writing-tables of the benches, and 

 the front and end of the gallery, were painted of a light 

 lead color ; and the glass of the windows being washed 

 clean, the laboratory now made a very decent and rather 

 inviting appearance, like the offices, store-rooms, and kitch- 

 ens that are seen almost underground in cities. 



During fifteen of the best years of my life, from the age 

 of twenty-five to forty, I was a diligent worker in this deep- 

 seated laboratory, and I will mention further on how I 

 finally emerged. This room had the advantage of a more 

 agreeable temperature than if it had been on the surface 

 of the ground. 



In October, 1804, the new laboratory received the class 

 that were to graduate in September, 1805. Here, again, 

 were those who in after-life became men of renown. 

 Among them were Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, friend of 

 the deaf mutes ; Edward Hooker, an able classical instructor ; 

 Rev. Heman Humphrey, D. D. ; Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis, 

 D. D. ; Dr. J. M. Scott McKnight, S. C. ; Rev. Gardiner 

 Spring, D. D. ; &c. The very limited apparatus was some- 

 what extended and embellished by several chemical instru- 

 ments which I found in a closet in the old philosophical 

 chamber, and which, as I understood, had been brought out 

 from London, in the time of President Stiles, by the late 

 President Ebenezer Fitch. This gentleman was graduated 

 in Yale College in 1777 ; was a tutor in it from 1780 to 

 1783 ; went into trade with Henry Daggett, Esq., in New 

 Haven, and their concerns led him to England, where he 

 obtained the apparatus named above. There were several 

 very beautiful gas-flasks, with sigmoid tubes ground into 



