Januaey 22, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



121 



and it has issued a number of useful works 

 in the way of special reports, volumes of 

 physical constants and bibliographies. Al- 

 though its energies have been more con- 

 spicuously exerted in the fields of zoology, 

 anthropology and meteorology, it has done 

 much for chemical science ; the subjects 

 which interested its founder have never 

 been neglected. In the history of Ameri- 

 can chemistry the Smithsonian Institution 

 plays an honorable part. 



In 1847 and 1848 the Sheffield and Law- 

 rence Scientific Schools were founded, the 

 one at New Haven, the other under the 

 protecting shelter of Harvard College. In 

 the one, chemistry was taught by J. P. 

 Norton and the younger Silliman ; while 

 Horsford conducted the laboratory at Cam- 

 bridge. The much older Polytechnic Insti- 

 tute at Troy had developed mainly as a 

 school of engineering, so that the two new 

 institutions practically stood by themselves, ' 

 as the only higher schools of chemistry — 

 schools in which professional chemists could 

 receive a thorough training — -within the 

 limits of the United States. Their influence 

 soon began to be felt, their graduates went 

 forth to take important positions, the stimu- 

 lus to scientific studies spread to the col- 

 leges, and the chemist became recognized 

 as the representative of a new learned pro- 

 fession. Law, medicine and divinity no 

 longer formed a class by themselves; other 

 branches of scholarship were to take rank 

 with them. 



In 1846 Agassiz came to America, bring- 

 ing with him the research method as a 

 method of education. Himself a zoologist, 

 his influence as a teacher was evident in all 

 directions, and chemistry shared in the new 

 impulse. There were many pupils of Lie- 

 big and Wohler in the United States, men 

 well imbued with the spirit of the new edu- 

 cation; and to them the coming of Agassiz 

 was a reinforcement and an inspiration. 

 The old college curriculum was compelled 



to expand, and the true conception of a 

 university began to be recognized on this 

 side of the Atlantic. In 1848 the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science 

 was organized, and science received a na- 

 tional standing which the local academies 

 and societies could never have given it. 

 The influence of the Association upon 

 chemistry will be considered later. 



In 1850 Josiah P. Cooke was elected pro- 

 fessor of chemistry in Harvard College. He 

 had received his bachelor's degree only two 

 years earlier, but during his student days 

 no chemistry had been taught to the 

 Harvard undergraduates. Practically self- 

 taught, and largely through the medium of 

 experiments, he realized the value of the 

 laboratory method of instruction and, in 

 spite of conservative opposition, he set to 

 work to bring about its adoption. He was 

 allowed at first the use of one basement 

 room for his purposes, but was compelled to 

 pay all or nearly all of the laboratory ex- 

 penses out of his own pocket, for the college 

 funds could not be wasted on strange inno- 

 vations, and the recitation method still 

 reigned supreme. Prof. Cooke, however, 

 understood how to be patient and per- 

 sistent at the same time; year by year his 

 courses of study were extended, by slow de- 

 grees his resources increased, and in 1858 

 Boyleton Hall, the present laboratory build- 

 ing, was completed. At first, part of the 

 building only was assigned to chemistry ; 

 now all of it is devoted to the teaching of 

 that science. It is truly a monument to 

 Prof. Cooke, whose energy and persistence 

 caused it to be erected, and to whom, more 

 than to any other one man, the full recog- 

 nition of the laboratory method in Amer- 

 ican colleges is due. The initiative was 

 taken by the scientific schools, but the col- 

 leges were compelled to follow ; and to-day 

 even the high schools, the feeders of the 

 colleges, have their chemical laboratories 

 in which elementary practice and qualita- 



