204 



SGIENGE. 



[N. S, Vol. VIII. No. 190. 



the country to make a point of laboratory 

 teaching. After seven years spent in teach- 

 ing, survej'ing and geological work, under 

 James Hall, he went abroad to study, be- 

 coming a favorite pupil of Liebig, and 

 brought to Cambridge the methods and 

 ideas of the Giessen laboratory. 



He immediately formulated a scheme for 

 the teaching of practical chemistry, and pre- 

 sented plans for a laboratory. These papers 

 were laid by the Treasurer of the Col- 

 lege before Abbott Lawrence, who supplied 

 the necessary funds for this enterprise and 

 for two other departments of geology and 

 engineering. Agassiz was called to the 

 chair in geology. The chemical laboratory 

 was built in 1849, and Professor Horsford 

 administered its affairs for sixteen years 

 with vigor and success. 



The tragedy connected with the name of 

 Professor Webster left a vacancy in chem- 

 istry at Harvard, and in 1850 J. P. Cooke, 

 then only twenty-three years of age, was 

 elected to the Erving professorship of chem- 

 istry and mineralogy. The strongest op- 

 posing candidate for this position was 

 David A Wells, the first graduate in chem- 

 istry from the Lawrence Scientific School, 

 since distinguished for his writings on eco- 

 nomic subjects. 



Cooke was in chemistry self-taught, with 

 little experience as a teacher, but full of an 

 inextinguishable enthusiasm, and an im- 

 mense capacity for work. He was at- 

 tracted at once to Liebig's methods, intro- 

 duced by Horsford three years before. 

 With the usual encouragement then given 

 by college authorities in these subjects, he 

 was permitted for the most part to provide 

 his own apparatus and pay his own ex- 

 penses, and not for seven years was his 

 laboratory course admitted into the regular 

 college curriculum. Even after this formal 

 recognition a large part of the expenses of 

 the chemical department was defrayed by 

 Professor Cooke, and his private collection 



of scientific apparatus became famous and 

 of great service to others besides himself. 

 As lately as August, 1871, Professor Trow- 

 bridge, in describing his new cosine gal- 

 vanometer, says : " My thanks are due to 

 Professor Cooke, of Harvard College, for 

 the generous use of his apparatus for elec- 

 trical measurements ;" showing that even 

 at that date the physical department of the 

 College possessed no adequate collection of 

 such instruments, but that the professors 

 were still compelled to depend largely upon 

 private resources. 



A similar development began in 1850 

 at the University of Pennsylvania under 

 James C. Booth, afterward developing into 

 the Towne Scientific School, and at a little 

 later date at the University of Virginia 

 under J. Lawrence Smith. At Dartmouth 

 College the Chandler Scientific school was 

 founded in 1851. 



At Brown University a heroic effort was 

 made by President Wayland to enlarge the 

 curriculum, introducing elective studies and 

 increasing the possibility of scientific train- 

 ing. His notable report to the trustees, in 

 1850, was in advance of the age, and al- 

 though an effort was made to carry out his 

 suggestions, and chairs were established in 

 practical chemistry and engineering, the 

 movement gradually waned from lack of 

 interest and support. A scientific school 

 was established at the University of Michi- 

 gan in 1852, and a chemical laboratory built 

 in 1856. Few other colleges appear to have 

 felt the rising scientific wave until later. 



All these scientific departments centered 

 at first around the chemical laboratory. 

 This is only natural, as in that science the 

 laboratory method of teaching was first 

 systematically developed. 



The great center of practical teaching, 

 which revolutionized the methods of the 

 world, was Liebig's laboratory, founded at 

 Giessen soon after his establishment there 

 as professor, in 1826. The direct influence 



