328 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



of his native city, with the addition of one year at a school in 

 Boston. He had in youth a strong liking for machinery, and 

 at one time had the intention of becoming a machinist, but 

 chemistry offered still greater attractions, and he finally con- 

 cluded to study medicine. His mechanical talent was in after 

 years of great service to Dr. Torrey, as it enabled him to de- 

 vise and construct various ingenious forms of apparatus for 

 the illustration of his lectures. While in his teens he came 

 under the influence of that famous teacher of science, Amos 

 Eaton, who explained to him the structure of flowers and thus 

 kindled a zeal for botanical study that persisted to the end 

 of his pupil's life. Torrey's interest in natural science soon 

 extended to mineralogy and chemistry, probably determining 

 his choice of a profession. In 1815 he entered the office of Dr. 

 Wright Post, then one of the leading physicians of the city. 

 At that day physicians dispensed their own medicines, and it 

 was the duty of the office students to prepare the various 

 powders, tinctures, etc., and put up the prescriptions for the 

 patients. The writer has frequently heard Prof. Torrey refer 

 to the great value this experience was to him in after-life, as it 

 gave him an early training in chemical manipulation such as 

 the medical students of the present day rarely acquire. 



Dr. Torrey took his degree in 1818 at the College of Physi- 

 cians and Surgeons, in New York, where Drs. Mitchill and 

 Hosack, then among the leaders of science in America, were 

 professors. He opened an office in New York city, but he 

 never liked the practice ef medicine, and did not try very 

 earnestly to become established in it, and we find him, in 1824, 

 entering upon the duties of Professor of Chemistry at the 

 United States Military Academy at W T est Point. At this time 

 he married Miss Eliza Robinson Shaw, of New York. We 

 may here remark that Dr. Torrey's scientific life was twofold. 

 While he is best known to the world as a botanist, it was as a 

 chemist that he found his remunerative occupation. From the 

 time of his acceptance of the chair at West Point, up to the 

 day of his death, he was engaged either in teaching chemistry 

 or in some position to which his profound chemical knowledge 

 adapted him. 



In early life Prof. Torrey was an enthusiastic mineralogist, 

 and the first and following volumes of the American Journal 

 of Science contain important contributions made by him to this 



