ANDSriVBKSAEY ADDKESS OF THE PEESIDEKT. '11 



ten volumes of Silliman's Journal. Prom 1825 to 1845 lie filled 

 the chair of Chemistry and Natural Historj in Amherst College, 

 with whose history his name is inseparably connected. In 1845 he 

 became President of the College. But even after his resignation 

 of the Presidency, he continued to be the instructor in Geology 

 and Natural H-eligion. 



His name will also always hold a place in the history of govern- 

 mental geological surveys, for it was on his suggestion that the 

 government of Massachusetts added a geological surveyor to the 

 corps charged with the preparation of a trigonometrical survey of 

 that State, to which post he appears to have been appointed ; he 

 made several reports on the State Greology between 1833 and 1841. 

 These were followed by other reports on Surface Greology, on the 

 Hgematite of Berkshire, and finally on the Ichnology of New 

 England. In 1856 he undertook with his tAvo sons the geological 

 survey of Vermont. This, notwithstanding many difficulties, was 

 completed in 1862 by the publication of the final report of about 

 a thousand pages. His last geological paper, entitled " New 

 Pacts and Conclusions respecting the Possil footmarks of the 

 Connecticut Valley," was published in Silliman's Journal in 1863. 

 He then expressed his opinion that it would be his last produc- 

 tion. He lived, however, to complete his ' Eemiuiscences,' the pre- 

 face of which is dated September 1, 1860. He died at Amherst 

 on the 27th of Pebruary, 1864, in his 71st year. He is described as 

 earnest, simple and sagacious, and as being indefatigable under all 

 discouragements . 



Professor Benjamin Silliman, the venerable and distinguished 

 Editor of the Journal which bears his name, and which has been 

 long known as the best of the scientific journals in the United 

 States, was born in 1780, and died at New Haven on the 24th 

 November last, at the age of 84. He graduated at Yale in 1798, 

 studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1802. He after- 

 wards accepted the Chair of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Greology 

 in Yale College. In 1820 he visited Europe to prosecute his 

 studies, then at the age of 40, in sciences which were at that 

 time almost unknown in America. On his return to America in 

 1821 he published an account of his travels in England, Hol- 

 land, and Scotland. He again revisited this country in 1851, of 

 which he also published his notes, entitled " Narrative of a Visit 

 to Europe in 1851." He afterguards assisted Dr. Ware in his 

 experiments with the oxyhydrogen blowpipe. 



In 1818 Professor Silliman had founded the American Journal 

 of Science and Arts on the extinction of the Journal of Mineralogy , 

 the only scientific periodical which had previously existed in the 

 United States. 



To this work, he devoted himself with energy and perseverance 

 for the remainder of his life. He was always an ardent promoter 

 of science, and continued to give lectures long after he had re- 

 signed his professorship. He is said to have been a man of simple, 



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