254 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



ligence, especially legal evidences of breaches of the act, 

 and assisting prosecutions, &c., &c. I am persuaded I need 

 not apologize for this hint. 



Mr. Silliman persevered in zealous attention to his 

 professional pursuits. While engaged in his labora- 

 tory, in the preparation of fulminating silver, the 

 materials exploded in the vessel over which he was 

 bending. The accident is described in the Reminis- 

 cences. 



My own experience in chemistry had hitherto been very 

 successful. I devoted myself laboriously and zealously to 

 the duties of the laboratory, and had now acquired a good 

 degree of confidence in my own experience, too much 

 indeed, as the sequel will prove. I had still to a degree 

 the characteristics of youth, and was just advancing into 

 mature manhood. 



After detailing the process of the experiment, he 

 adds: 



My face and eyes being directly over the dish, they 

 received the full force of a violent explosion, which threw 

 me back upon the wall behind, and produced intense pain 

 both from the concussion and from the corrosive materials, 

 alcohol, nitric acid, and lunar caustic, blown forcibly 

 into my eyes. I was stunned, but not deprived of my con- 

 sciousness, and 1 fully comprehended my perilous condi- 

 tion. I was entirely alone ; my assistant, Lyman Foot, 

 having gone away on an errand. I made my way, in the 

 horror of deep darkness, for my eyes were involuntarily 

 shut, I groped my way to the pneumatic cistern, the only 

 water that I could hope to reach. It was covered with 

 drawers full of minerals, but I managed to throw some of 

 them aside, and thus reached the water with which I 

 washed my face, and especially my eyes abundantly. My 



