1911.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 81 



Wliile in ils employ, he visited and exaniinod the salt springs in 

 Canada, Michigan and Louisiana. During the latter part of this 

 Syracuse period he spent a i)ortion of each year as professor of 

 chemistry and physics at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, 

 and he was invited to occupy the position permanently. 



In 1868, at the earnest solicitation of his friend, the late Col. Wil- 

 liam S. Clark, he accepted the professorship of cTiemistry at the 

 ]\Iassachusetts Agricultural College, and held it continuously until 

 Lis retirement in June, 1907. He was placed at the head of the 

 Massachusetts Exj^eriment Station, a private enterprise started in 1878, 

 and was instrumental in securing" the establishment of the Massachu- 

 setts State Agricultural Experiment Station in 1882, being made its 

 director and chemist, — positions which he held until it was merged with 

 the Hatch Experiment Station by act of the Legislature in 1895. 



Professor Goessmann served as chemist to the Massachusetts State 

 Board of Agriculture from 1873 until his retirement, and for many 

 years also acted as associate analyst of the Massachusetts State Board 

 of Health. He became the first president of the Association of Official 

 Agricultural Chemists, and w^as a charter member of the American 

 Chemical Society, which he also served as president and vice-president. 

 He w'as a member of the German society of naturalists and physicians, 

 of the Physico-Medical Society of Erlangen University, a fellow of 

 the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a mem- 

 ber of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and of the Massachu- 

 setts Meteorological Society. 



In 1889 Amherst College conferred upon him the degxee of Doctor 

 of Laws. 



In this connection space forbids any extended reference to his 

 work. Briefly it may be classihed into four periods : — 



1. The Goitingen Period of Seven Years, 1850-57. 

 In addition to his work as teacher in the university he found time 

 to make and publish the results of twenty-five distinct investigations, 

 all of which may be found in the "Annalen der Chemie u. Pharmacie." 

 Among the most important of these papers may be mentioned the 

 discovery of arachidic and hypogseic acids in the peanut oil, the con- 

 stituents of the cantharides, the composition of cocoa oil and the 

 constitution of leucine. This latter paper was considered of so much 

 importance that it drew forth a letter of commendation from Wohler 

 to Dumas and secured for Gcissmann membership in the Physico- 

 Medical Society of the University of Erlangen, an honor which he highly 

 prized. 



