116 
Of the results of the instructions given to his college 
classes, I shall speak further on. But I may here say, 
that it was not the habit of his mind to confine himself 
to any single inquiry, or to any narrow routine of study. 
Whatever of scientific interest presented itself in any direc- 
tion was sure to attract his attention. Though not to be 
placed in the list of great discoverers, he was among the 
earliest, in the progress of chemical science, to verify the 
discoveries of others, and so to illustrate and incorporate 
them in the body of science as to make them accessible to 
his pupil. The discovery of new truths is restricted to the 
fortunate few ; the diffusion of them belongs to the practical, 
diligent many. A brilliant reputation crowns the former; 
comprehensive usefulness is the reward of the latter. Pro- 
fessor Silliman, pursuant to the practical bent of his mind, 
appears to have made the diffusion of knowledge his chosen 
field of labor. He never lost sight of the general interest 
and public utility of science, yet this characteristic of his 
mind did not prevent him from prosecuting at times labori- 
ous original researches. In 1811 he instituted an extended 
course of experiments with Hare’s blowpipe, in which he 
succeeded, as he tells us, in melting lime, magnesia, rock- 
crystal, gun-flint, corundum gems, and a long list of the 
most refractory minerals, “the greater part of which,” he 
adds, “had never been melted before.”* A detailed ac- 
count of these experiments was published in the Transac- 
tions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
in 1812. 
On receiving intelligence of Sir Humphrey Davy’s dis- 
covery of the metallic bases of the alkalies, he immediately 
_ Fepeated his experiments, and “obtained, probably for the 
ae a. time in the United States, the metals potassium and 
ee ee L p. 99. 
