a ee 
NATURE 
289 
THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 1870 
SCIENCE SCHOOLS AND MUSEUMS IN 
AMERICA 
pA the present time when we are, as it were, taking 
stock of our Scientific Institutions, an account of 
the various schools and colleges in the United States, in 
which Science is made a chief, if not ¢/e chief subject, 
may be welcome to our readers. A paper in the Canadian 
Naturalist, by Prof. Dawson—the result of the Pro- 
fessor’s travels through the States, in order to determine 
by personal visits the practical working of the American 
Science Schools, and to use the experience so obtained, 
in the founding of a Canadian School of Science at Mon- 
treal—has been largely used. 
It was for similar reasons that Prof. Agassiz visited 
the various museums of the Old World, in order to deter- 
mine what errors he should avoid, and what precedents 
he should follow, in founding the magnificent Museum at 
Cambridge, U.S. 
Referring to the various institutions in the various 
States, we will follow the footsteps of Prof. Dawson, 
adding whatever has been changed or improved since his 
visit. 
In New York, Science has for some time past been at a 
very low ebb. Unlike London or Manchester, that busy 
mercantile community has no time to spend on such ap- 
parently trifling matters as the propagation of scientific 
knowledge, and the acquisition of materials for scientific 
investigation. The only School of Science in New York 
is Columbia College ; an old-fashioned brick building, in 
a quaint, old-fashioned square, formerly outside the town, 
now, by the rapid increase of building, quite enclosed and 
surrounded. The College-buildings form three sides of a 
quadrangle, and are long, narrow rooms lighted by windows 
inthe sides. Three roomsare used as laboratories for practi- 
cal analysis, qualitative and quantitative. Another room is 
the furnace-room, for assaying purposes ; another is used 
for purposes of drawing, and there are numerous class- 
rooms and lecture-rooms, but all sadly out of proportion 
to the size of the town. Two rooms are set apart, one for 
the mineralogical, the other for the geological and palaon- 
tological collections. Among the latter the private cabinet 
of Prof. Newberry, especially rich in remains from the 
Carboniferous strata, is the most prominent feature. 
The staff of professors, lecturers, and assistants, num- 
bers eighteen in all ; and the lectures, practical and theo- 
retical, are purely scientific, embracing mineralogy, 
metallurgy, chemistry, botany, mechanics, physics, geo- 
logy and paleontology, assaying, and drawing. 
The full course for students is three years, at the end of 
which they are duly qualified for practical mining work, 
mineral surveying, and practical chemistry. They have 
to pass an entrance examination in algebra, geometry, 
and trigonometry, and at the end of their course most 
of them attain the degree of “Engineer of Mines,” or 
“Bachelor of Philosophy.” The number of students in 
the last account was from 112 to 120, An important 
feature of the course is that students are expected in the 
vacation to visit mines and metallurgical and chemical 
establishments, and to report on these, and also to make 
illustrative collections ; while, during the session, short 
VOL. Il. 
excursions are made to the machine shops and the metal- 
lurgical and chemical establishments in or near the city. 
The practical value of such a course of training cannot 
be too highly appreciated ; it is an example which many 
of our science schools and colleges would do well to follow. 
In justice, however, to one of the chief of these in Eng- 
land, it should be mentioned that the engineering and 
chemical classes in Owens College, Manchester, are in 
the habit of being taken by the respective professors to 
the leading scientific and chemical works near Man- 
chester. 
Besides Columbia College, New York is now in a fair 
way soon to possess avery fine public museum. In the 
beginning of 1869 a bill was carried in the House of Con- 
gress to establish in New York a museum, under Govern- 
ment control, similar to the British Museum. This 
museum is called “ The American Museum of Natural 
History,” and it published its first report a little time ago. 
The fine collection of the Prince of Neuwied, formed 
chiefly in the Brazils and South America, has been pur- 
chased, and communications have been sent to all the 
United States consuls throughout the world to aid the 
museum by the collecting and purchasing of valuable 
natural history specimens in their several localities. We 
cannot leave the State of New York without noticing how 
the liberal founder of the Cornell University has made 
provision for practical and theoretical instruction in 
natural science. Laboratories, museums, herbariums, 
libraries of scientific works, have been either presented or 
bought ; and by the scheme by which the students can 
work out the expenses of their education by their skilled 
labour, it is now possible for the very poorest artisan or 
mechanic in America to obtain as valuable a scientific edu- 
cation as any given anywhere in the world. 
Proceeding from New York to New Haven, we find 
here avery important and yery fine school of science. 
The Sheffield Scientific School is a modern outgrowth of 
the University of Yale College, and was first established 
in 1847 as a small undertaking, conducted by the elder 
Silliman, chiefly as a school for applied chemistry and 
scientific agriculture. In 1860 Mr. Sheffield, a wealthy 
citizen of New Haven, gave it a building and apparatus 
valued at 50,000 dollars, supplementing this by a grant of 
50,000 dollars to found chairs of engineering, metallurgy, 
and chemistry. In 1863 it was further enlarged by grants 
of land from the State of Connecticut in aid of scientific 
education. It also participates in the benefit which Yale 
College derives from Mr. Peabody’s Museum and _ his 
magnificent endowment of 150,000 dollars. The Sheffield 
School contains some fine natural history collections, one 
of the most valuable of which is one of Economic Geo- 
logy, admirably arranged, and which shows the immense 
mineral wealth of America to great advantage. 
The buildings of the school are finer and better arranged 
than those of Columbia College, and its educational scope 
is wider. There are six distinct courses of scientific in- 
struction open to the students :— 
. Chemistry and mineralogy. 
2, Engineering and mechanics. 
3. Mining and metallurgy. 
4. Agriculture. 
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. Natural history and geology. 
. A select scientific and literary course. 
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