

LECTURES IN SOUTHERN CITIES. 21 



acting as priest as well as master. We observed that they 

 were using guano in the culture of cotton, and we under- 

 stood, with advantage. 



It is unnecessary to present further details of the 

 work done by Mr. Silliman as a lecturer, in many 

 other cities and towns. In 1852 he was called upon 

 to deliver a geological course in the Smithsonian 

 Institution, and complied with the request. In 1855, 

 when he had reached the age of seventy-five, he re- 

 luctantly acceded to an earnest and reiterated request 

 that he would lecture in St. Louis. He made the 

 long journey and performed this duty, receiving 

 marked attentions during his stay in that place. An 

 incident occurred which served to prove that some 

 theological enemies of geology still remained. Hav- 

 ing mentioned that the hall originally provided was 

 inconveniently large, he adds : 



There was another coincidence that was far from being 

 agreeable, and the only discourtesy I ever met with as a 

 geologist. An association of young men, I believe the 

 Christian Association, occupied another lecture-room in 



the same building, and there Bishop of 



addressed them in anticipation of my course, and his first 

 subject was " On the Assumptions of Geology." The Bishop 

 said in his lecture that half the geologists were infidels, and 

 the other half he pitied. A gentleman who heard him said 

 that the lecture was crude, ignorant, and of course denun- 

 ciatory. As my course had been for some time announced, 

 he must have been aware of the fact, and I thought it was 

 rude and uncandid to endeavor to give the public mind an 

 unfavorable bias ; and this conclusion seemed unavoidable, 

 as his introductory lecture, containing his protest against 

 geology, was given on the evening before my first lecture. 



