442 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 97a 



chair at Harvard College together with the 

 ■well-worn comment of 



Columbia College a year or two since refused to 

 appoint him to a chemical professorship. Because 

 he did not understand chemistry? No; because 

 he was a Unitarian! 



At the time of the death of Professor Gibbs 

 this statement also appeared in several of the 

 " official " sketches that were published. As 

 the story differed somewhat from the one that 

 prevailed at Columbia when I was an under- 

 graduate, I undertook to ascertain the facts 

 for my own satisfaction and have arrived at 

 the following conclusions : 



In 1854 Wolcott Gibbs (easily the most dis- 

 tinguished of the many eminent scientists who 

 have graduated from Columbia) was fiUing 

 the chair of physics and chemistry in the Col- 

 lege of the City of New York. He had only 

 recently returned from Europe, where he had 

 studied in Germany under Liebig and in 

 Erance under Eegnault, but had not as yet 

 given any distinct evidence of his brilliant 

 powers as an investigator, nor had he pub- 

 lished papers that indicated his great genius. 

 It was also in that year that a successor was 

 sought at Columbia for the illustrious James 

 Eenwick, who since 1820 had added to the 

 prestige of his alma mater by serving her as 

 professor of chemistry. 



Various candidates were proposed and 

 among them naturally enough the young 

 alunmus of Columbia, who was then filling 

 acceptably a teaching professorship in the 

 Free Academy, as the City College was then 

 commonly called. The trustees, however, in 

 their wisdom chose Richard McCulloh, a man 

 of more mature years than Gibbs and one who 

 had already given promise of the future by 

 his valuable work on the United States Coast 

 Survey, then the foremost scientific bureau of 

 the national government. That he filled the 

 place satisfactorily is shown by the fact that 

 three years later he was transferred to the 

 chair of mechanics and physics, which he then 

 held until October, 1863, when, as the General 

 Catalogue has it, he " abandoned his post and 

 joined the rebels." 



Admirers of Professor Gibbs, however, have 

 ever since persistently contended that Gibbs 

 was rejected because he was a Unitarian, and 

 even an appeal was presented to the New 

 York state legislature^ in which it was claimed 

 that his rejection was made for sectarian' 

 reasons. 



That Columbia has always had leanings 

 toward the Protestant Episcopal faith is per- 

 haps most significantly shown by the facts- 

 that the Bishop of New York and the rector 

 of Trinity Church are ex-officio members of 

 the board of trustees. But it must be remem- 

 bered so also is the senior minister of the 

 Dutch Reformed Church; and also again it 

 must be remembered, that no evidence has 

 ever been presented as to the faith of Pro- 

 fessor McCulloh. 



Much as I regret the decision of the trustees 

 in depriving Columbia of the services of him, 

 who, in the paths of science proved himself to- 

 be her most eminent alumnus, and also who 

 ever inspired those who were so fortunate as 

 to study under him with a true love of sci- 

 ence, nevertheless, in these modern days, when 

 church unity is the hope of so many, is it not 

 time to cease the persistent criticism of Co- 

 lumbia for her sectarianism and to accept the 

 more reasonable conclusion, entirely con- 

 sistent with the facts, that McCulloh was- 

 chosen to the faculty because the trustees be- 

 lieved him to be the better man and not be- 

 cause Gibbs was a Unitarian. 



Marcus Benjamin 



the law of priority 

 On general principles it can not be denied' 



^ Professor J. H. Van Amringe, Columbia 's most 

 beloved alumnus, in a recent letter, calls my atten- 

 tion to the fact that in response to this appeal a 

 committee of the New York Senate was appointed 

 to ascertain whether the trustees had required any 

 "religious qualifications or test from any candi- 

 date as a condition of any professorship in said' 

 college. " As a result of the inquiries the com- 

 mittee "arrived at the clear and decided convic- 

 tion that there had been no such violation. ' ' See- 

 "A History of Columbia University. 1754-1904,"' 

 New York, 1904, page 129. 



