SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL 133 



small but courageous faculty. Mr. Joseph E. Sheffield, 

 one of whose daughters was the wife of Professor 

 Porter, had bought the old Medical School Building, 

 had remodeled and added largely to it for the use 

 of the Scientific School; but although his gift put the 

 school in possession of a home, it was still without 

 funds until, in the October following this Agricultural 

 Convention in New Haven, Mr. Sheffield's renewed 

 generosity placed the Scientific School at last on a 

 permanent foundation. 



Arrangement of the laboratories had been left 

 largely in the hands of Professor Johnson, who took 

 great pleasure in fitting them up. When finished, 

 with their old-fashioned furnaces and huge sand-baths 

 always warm, they were proudly believed to be, if not 

 the best in this country, at least as good as any on this 

 side of the Atlantic. Mrs. S. W. Johnson preserved 

 the original draft of the following letter. It was laid 

 away with the endorsement, ' ' S. W. J. to Mr. Sheffield 

 on the endowment of his professorship in Yale Col- 

 lege. ' ' 



New Haven, Conn., Oct. 10th, 1860. 

 Mr. Sheffield;— 



Dear Sir, However greatly the country at large may be 

 indebted to your generous liberality in founding the Scientific 

 School on a sure basis, 1 feel tiiat no individual has more 

 cause of gratitude than myself. 



What gratification it has been to me to plan in part and. 

 watch the growth of a Laboratory which, thanks to your 

 bounty, is superior to any yet erected for all serious purposes, 

 and not inferior to any in elegance — I can by no means 

 express. 



