BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, THE ELDER. ^5 



the arguments on both sides, and came to the conclusion on 

 which geologists are generally now tacitly agreed, that <4 both 

 theories were founded in truth, and that the crust of the earth 

 had been formed and greatly modified by the combined, or 

 sometimes antagonistic and conflicting, powers of fire and water." 



Prof. Silliman had already attended to the care of the 

 modest collections of minerals belonging to the college. 

 There were a few metallic ores which had been named by Dr. 

 Adam Seybert, of Philadelphia ; a small collection which Dr. 

 Semper had brought from England, containing some beautiful 

 specimens, particularly in the lime family ; and his own 

 collections made in the mines of Derbyshire and Cornwall, 

 in England, and local specimens obtained in his rambles 

 among the trap-rocks of the Scottish capital, with a purchased 

 suite of Italian polished marbles, all of which "when arranged, 

 labelled, and described in illustration of the mineral portion of 

 the chemical lectures, served to awaken an interest in the sub- 

 ject of mineralogy, and to produce both aspirations and hopes 

 looking toward a collection which should by and by deserve 

 the name of a cabinet." One of the first things to be done 

 after returning home was to study the geology of the vicinity 

 of New Haven, in the light of the knowledge that had been 

 gained in Edinburgh. The result of this survey was a report, 

 printed in the first volume of the Transactions of the Connect- 

 icut Academy of Arts and Sciences, in which an attentive re- 

 perusal by the author fifty-two years afterward suggested very 

 few alterations and disclosed no important errors. The cabi- 

 net of Mr. Benjamin D. Perkins was shortly afterward pur- 

 chased for a thousand dollars, and in 1810 the splendid cabinet 

 of Colonel George Gibbs was deposited in the college. The 

 latter cabinet, which attracted visitors from all parts of the 

 country, was bought fifteen years afterward. While Prof. Sil- 

 liman was engaged in arranging it, the Rev Dr. Ely accosted 

 him : "Why, dominie, is there not danger that with these phys- 

 ical attractions you will overtop the Latin and the Greek?" 

 Prof. Silliman replied : " Sir, let the literary gentlemen push 

 and sustain their departments. It is my duty to give full 

 effect to the sciences committed to my care." 



An American Journal of Mineralogy had been started by 

 Dr. Archibald Bruce, of New York, in 1810, but it was sus- 

 pended after the publication of four numbers. Prof. Silliman, 



