438 



PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



this account something more than an ordinary responsibility 

 rested upon him." 



All of young Bache's predispositions for good were stimu- 

 lated and sustained by the judicious care of his mother, not 

 only while he was a child at home, but also by means of a 

 ready pen during the whole of his residence at West Point. It 

 should not be inferred that the young man attained perfection 

 in his conduct. " When a child he is said to have been quick- 

 tempered, and at later periods of his life, when suddenly pro- 

 voked beyond his habitual power of endurance, he sometimes 

 gave way to manifestations of temper which might have sur- 

 prised those who only knew him in his usual state of calm 

 deportment. These ebullitions were, however, of rare occur- 

 rence, and always of short duration." 



On graduating, Lieutenant Bache was assigned to duty at 

 the academy as assistant professor. A year later he was trans- 

 ferred at his own request to engineering service on the forti- 

 fications at Newport, R. I., under Major (afterward General) 

 J. G. Totten. Here he remained two years. One of his recre- 

 ations during this period was making a collection of shells of 

 molluscs. 



In 1828, being then twenty-two years of age, Lieutenant 

 Bache resigned his commission in the army to accept a call to 

 the chair of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry at the University 

 of Pennsylvania. This change was welcome in more ways 

 than one. He was engaged to Miss Nancy Clarke Fowler, the 

 daughter of an old and highly respected citizen of Newport, 

 but marriage was apparently a remote prospect, for he had 

 only the stinted pay of a lieutenant of engineers, out of which 

 he must contribute to the support of his mother and her younger 

 children. The salary of his new position, however, justified 

 him in hastening the happy event. 



His year's experience in teaching at West Point assisted 

 Mr. Bache in taking up his duties at the university. He was a 

 very successful instructor, and popular with his students. But 

 he did not rest content with imparting knowledge obtained by 

 the labours of others. He joined the Franklin Institute, then 

 newly established, and took a prominent part in its investiga- 

 tions for the promotion of the mechanical arts. For a full 

 account of his labours in connection with this society we must 

 here be content with referring to the volumes of its Journal 



