September 6, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



361 



without serving. In this year Priestley 

 came to America, and lived for a short 

 time in Philadelphia. He was offered the 

 chair, but after some delay declined it on 

 account of poor health and the desire to 

 lead a quiet life in a rural country, which 

 he found later on the banks of the Susque- 

 hanna at JSTorthumberland. 



In July, 1795, the place was again filled 

 by Dr. James Woodhouse, who served until 

 1809. His successor was John Eedman 

 Coxe, who was among the earliest .writers 

 on chemistry in this country, since he pub- 

 lished in 1811 a small work entitled, ' Ob- 

 servations on Combustion and Acidification; 

 with a Theory of these Processes founded 

 on the Conjunction of the Phlogistic and 

 Antiphlogistic Doctrines.' Dr. Coxe was fol- 

 lowed by Eobert Hare, who was a man of 

 great ability and a credit to the new coun- 

 try. Hare made numerous discoveries 

 himself, some of them of permanent impor- 

 tance, and besides rendered a service to 

 students by bringing out an American 

 edition of Henry's chemistry. Some years 

 later he published a text-book on chemistry 

 himself for the use of the medical students 

 of the University of Pennsylvania. As 

 Hare's position was unquestionably the 

 most important one of the kind in the 

 country, it may be well to give a few 

 moments' attention to his work as typical 

 of the best of the period. 



Hare began his career at a time which, 

 from one point of view, might be considered 

 as very unfavorable for the development of 

 chemistry in America. The early aspirations 

 of the founders of the Philadelphia College 

 had failed of realization because, as must be 

 recognized, they were beyond the practical 

 sympathies or comprehension of the masses. 

 The requirements for the attainment of the 

 degree of Doctor of Physic were relatively, 

 and in some respects, perhaps, absolutely, 

 far in advance of those of the present time, 

 and this the colonies were not ready for. 



Then came the Eevolution, followed by a 

 long period of political discussion and rapid 

 internal development, and finally another 

 bloody war. This left the country poor and 

 yet farther behind again in the sphere of in- 

 tellectual development. The great Euro- 

 pean wars of the same period had not 

 hindered scientific discovery or cultivation 

 in France and England, at least. Through 

 these years of turmoil, the beginning which 

 had been made in the few American centers 

 where chemistry was taught had come al- 

 most to a standstill, and Hare entered upon 

 what might appear a field of little promise. 

 But the man was an independent thinker, 

 and the example of Berthollet, Dal ton, 

 Davy, Berzelius, Gay Lussac, Humboldt 

 and others was not lost on him. He began 

 his work as a private student and partly in 

 conjunction with the elder Silliman, who 

 came to him before beginning at Yale, and 

 while yet a young man attracted consider- 

 able attention by the discovery of the oxy- 

 hydrogen blowpipe, a description of which 

 was published in 1802. Later he con- 

 structed a new form of galvanic cell with 

 very large plates which was known as the 

 calorimotor or deflagrator, and this gave 

 him no small reputation abroad as well as 

 at home. 



Hare's theoretical explanations of phe- 

 nomena observed were not always correct, 

 and in some of the many polemics in which 

 he took part he certainly defended the 

 weaker side of the argument, but in looking 

 through his writings one cannot but be im- 

 pressed with the ingenuit}'^ he displayed in 

 contriving experiments to illustrate simple 

 principles. 



One of the best known works of chem- 

 istry of this time was that of Dr. Henry, of 

 Manchester. The last American edition of 

 this was brought out by Hare, and was 

 used in his own classes and elsewhere in 

 the United States. Later he brought out a 

 book of his own with the title, ' A Com- 



