Marcu 15, 1912] 
GEORGE JARVIS BRUSH 
Grorce Jarvis BrusuH, LL.D., professor of 
mineralogy, emeritus in Yale University, died 
at his home in New Haven on February sixth 
in his eighty-first year. He was the last sur- 
vivor of the first class to graduate from the 
Scientific School and the last member of a 
small group of distinguished men, who in the 
early days of the school devoted their lives to 
its service. With him passes a scientist who 
did much for the development of the science 
of mineralogy in this country and one who 
did even more for the general cause of scien- 
tific study and research. 
He was born in the city of Brooklyn, De- 
cember 15, 1831. An illness when a boy 
forced him to spend a year in the country and 
from this arose an interest in agricultural 
problems which later led him to Yale to take 
the newly established course in agricultural 
chemistry taught at that time by Professor J. 
P. Norton. In this way he became deeply in- 
terested successively in the subjects of chem- 
istry, metallurgy and mineralogy. He en- 
tered Yale in 1848, leaving in 1850 to become 
an assistant in chemistry to Professor Benja- 
min Silliman, Jr., at Louisville. He received, 
however, in 1852 the degree of Bachelor of 
Philosophy with his class at Yale. In the 
same year he became an assistant in chemis- 
try at the University of Virginia. It was 
here that he did his first important work in 
mineralogy in collaboration with Professor J. 
Lawrence Smith. Together they published a 
series of articles entitled “ Reexamination of 
American Minerals,” in which many new 
analyses were given and many points clarified 
which had been obscure in the early descrip- 
tions of American minerals. In 1853 Brush 
went abroad and spent two years of study in 
the laboratories at Munich and Freiburg. He 
returned to New Haven in 1856 as professor 
of metallurgy, which title he retained until 
1864, when it was changed to professor of 
metallurgy and mineralogy. In 1871 the title 
was again changed to professor of mineral- 
ogy and this was retained until his death, the 
word emeritus being added in 1898 when he 
retired from active duties. He was deeply in- 
SCIENCE 
409 
terested in the development of the new scien- 
tific school in which he taught and was largely 
instrumental in its incorporation as _ the 
Sheffield Scientific School in 1861. He be- 
came the first director of the institution in 
1872 and retained that office until his resig- 
nation in 1898. The earlier years of this 
period were critical ones, not only for the 
Sheffield Scientific School, but for the gen- 
eral cause of scientific education in this 
country. It is to be remembered that the 
public sentiment toward science was very 
different then from what it is to-day. At that 
time men like Professor Brush were especially 
needed who, with courage and far-sighted 
ideals, could strive against and gradually 
overcome the general distrust and disfavor 
with which scientific education was consid- 
ered. In the scientific school he gathered a 
faculty of notable men about him and 
through his enthusiasm and faith inspired 
them with a devotion and unity of purpose 
which has had few parallels. 
Much of his power lay in his ability to suc- 
cessfully organize and direct. That he had a 
keen business sense is shown in the material 
advancement of the school under his leader- 
ship and also in the fact that his services 
were always in demand by various public 
business a director and 
officer. 
In his younger days, before his administra- 
tive duties became too heavy, Brush did con- 
siderable investigation in mineralogy, as the 
appended bibliography will show. He was, 
furthermore, always an inspiration to other 
workers in that field. It was through his en- 
thusiasm and interest that the remarkable 
mineral locality at Branchville, Connecticut, 
was thoroughly explored. The results of these 
investigations were published in a series of 
papers by him in collaboration with Professor 
E. S. Dana. The work also involved a series 
of chemical analyses by S. L. Penfield and H. 
L. Wells, who were at that time graduate stu- 
dents in the Scientific School. Penfield later 
became assistant to Brush and finally suc- 
ceeded him as acting professor of mineralogy 
organizations as 
