advisers and allies were the local physicians and their libra- 

 ries were his stock of books. His thoughts turned, therefore, 

 to medicine and surgery, as the most available if not the 

 most congenial of scientific pursuits, and a skeleton was 

 hidden away among the boxes and barrels of the grocery 

 store, with his home-made chemical apparatus. But his 

 natural bias finally asserted itself, and circumstances com- 

 bined with his tastes to enable him to follow the pursuits for 

 which he was best fitted. 



The sixth annual meeting of the Association of American 

 Geologists and Naturalists, the progenitor of the present 

 American Association ior the Advancement of Science, was 

 held in New Haven in 1845. The young chemist attended 

 it as correspondent for a New York newspaper. There was 

 read at it more than one paper which must have stimulated 

 his thoughts and imagination above all, a most suggestive 

 rather than conclusive discussion of the atomic theory l>v 

 that brilliant but eccentric genius, J. D. Whelpley, a paper 

 glittering with such aphorisms as " gravity is affinity at a 

 distance," " affinity is gravity near at hand," and " the 

 extended atmosphere of an atom (Sanscrit atma, breath, 

 omnipresent power, first principle) is therefore its proper 

 ether, through which it radiates pulses of heat and light, and 

 is electrically, magnetically and attractively present in the 

 whole space." 



Thomas Sterry Hunt's name appears among those of the 

 gentlemen unanimously elected members of the Association. 

 He therefore took more than the ordinary newspaper repor- 

 ter's perfunctory interest in its proceedings. That of his 

 future chief, William Logan, also stands on the same list, 

 with the strange title, " Geol. Surveyor of Canada." 



The elder Silliman had lectured at Norwich, and had there 

 previously seen the precocious boy. When Hunt met him 

 now again, his wonderful acquirements and natural grace of 

 manner gained for him the friendship of that famous chemist, 

 as noted for his generous appreciation of genius in others as 

 for his own scientific position. He secured his admission to 



