644 



SCIENCE. 



[N.S. Vol. XIX. No. 486. 



eral elements, isolated others for the first 

 time, determined a great number of atomic 

 (or, as we prefer to call them, combining) 

 weights, worked out numerous new ana- 

 lytical methods, and did much of great im- 

 portance in organic chemistry. You prob- 

 ably recollect that Sir John Herschel, while 

 at the university in 1819, for lack of a bet- 

 ter place, converted his sleeping room into 

 a laboratory, discovered the solvent action 

 of sodium thiosulphate, so important in 

 photographic processes, and had endless 

 trouble with the chambermaid and his land- 

 lady because of the mess he made. 



The leading scientific men of those days 

 were as well aware of the necessity of labo- 

 ratory teaching to convey a proper knowl- 

 edge of the subject as we are ourselves, and 

 repeated efforts were made to induce col- 

 lege and university authorities to recognize 

 this need. But insuperable difficulties 

 were met, and not the least of these was 

 the opposition of those engaged in teach- 

 ing the classics. These ultra conserva- 

 tives, to use no harsher term, were not 

 even Avilling to grant that chemistry ranked 

 as a science, and vigorously resisted at- 

 tempts to introduce it as a regular study. 

 To Liebig, at Giessen, belongs the credit of 

 making the first successful breach through 

 these prejudices, and establishing the first 

 chemical laboratory ever opened to students 

 in a university. This was soon after 1824, 

 the year in which he began his work at 

 Giessen. This famous laboratory of his 

 was small and had a precarious existence 

 at first. Ten years after its opening Liebig, 

 in a bitter letter to the chancellor of the 

 university who controlled the funds, com- 

 plained that he had been given nothing but 

 four bare walls, and no money whatever 

 for equipment or running expenses. Every 

 piece of apparatus, and every chemical in 

 it, he had bought and paid for out of his 

 small salary. His patience was exhausted 

 and he threatened to resign, and to make 



known the treatment he had received in 

 justification of his resignation. In re- 

 sponse to this, and stirred by the fear of 

 the scandal that exposure would cause, the 

 chancellor provided the minimum amount 

 of money necessary to appease and retain 

 Liebig. But students had flocked to Gies- 

 sen from every civilized country, and re- 

 turned inspired and eager to follow Lie- . 

 big's example in their own homes. Labo- 

 ratories, and courses in chemistry, modeled 

 on Liebig 's, sprang up in too rapid succes- 

 sion to follow. We may, however, describe 

 one or two of the beginnings in our own 

 country. 



Chemistry was taught in the laboratory 

 in the medical department of Harvard, in 

 the city of Boston, at an early date, and 

 in 1846 a new medical school was built, 

 the basement of which was devoted to a 

 chemical laboratory capable of accommo- 

 dating 138 students. In the academic de- 

 partment recognition of the subject was 

 slower. Professor Josiah P. Cook, Erving 

 professor of chemistry, who died only a 

 few years ago, succeeded in getting a small 

 laboratory fitted up in the basement of the 

 main university building in 1851, and 

 President Eliot was the first student to 

 take advantage of the opportunity offered. 



At Tale Professor Benjamin Silliman 

 and his son established a laboratory of an- 

 alytical chemistry and mineralogy, as a 

 private venture, and it became of sufficient 

 importance to be incorporated as part of 

 the university in 1847. This proved to be 

 the nucleus from which sprang the present 

 Sheffield Scientific School. 



The University of Michigan is generally 

 recognized as having always set the pace 

 for other state universities, and maintained 

 its leadership in this department also, by 

 being the first of them to introduce the 

 laboratory method in teaching. Three 

 years after Professor Cooke had begun 

 educating President Eliot, Dr. Douglas, of 



