FIKST YEARS IN AMERICA 25 



sulphate of lime (gypsum), the least soluble ingredient, 

 will be the first thrown down, the chloride of sodium 

 next, and lastly, if at all, the deliquescent salts which 

 form the " bitterns." . . . This will account for the de- 

 position of gypsum, of pure salt, and of unusually bitter 

 salt, in different parts of the same basin.' 



Facts illustrating this distribution of the solid con- 

 tent of salt water were reported by Goessmann from 

 the salt-basin of the Upper Ohio, and similar facts have 

 been brought to light in boring the wells about 

 Goderich. 



A few months after Dr. Goessmann had entered on 

 his duties at Syracuse he was strongly urged by his 

 friends especially by Professor Chandler, then at 

 Union College to accept the professorship of chem- 

 istry in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, 

 which had recently become vacant through the death 

 of Professor Elderhorst. In a letter from Professor 

 Chandler to Vice-President Brinsmade, dated Novem- 

 ber 9, 1861, touching Goessmann, he says: 'When I 

 worked as a pupil, under his direction in Wb'hler's 

 laboratory, he was universally beloved by the students, 

 and was a model of all that is desirable in a teacher.' 

 In his reply to a letter from Dr. Brinsmade, Goessmann 

 strongly urged the desirability of a thorough course of 

 instruction in chemistry and also submitted plans for 

 a chemical laboratory. For two years, from 1862 to 

 1864, he filled the chair of chemistry and physics at 

 the Institute and taught also mineralogy. He was 

 succeeded by Dr. Henry B. Nason, a former pupil at 

 Gottin^en. 



