480 PROCEEDINGS OF PHILADELPHIA MEETING. 



Newburyport, in the Adelphian Academy at Bridgewater and in the 

 Williston Seminary at East Hampton. In 1855 he graduated from Am- 

 herst College with high honors. The same 3'ear he began a series of 

 travels and studies in Europe, entering Gottingen University in the fall, 

 where he studied chemistrj'- under the distinguished Wohler, with miner- 

 alogy and geology as collateral studies and physics and botany as accessor}^ 

 ones. His vacations were given to travel in various parts of Europe. 

 Receiving the degree of Ph. D. in 1857, he spent some further time in 

 travel before his return to this country. The following year he taught 

 in the Raymond Collegiate Institute and in the succeeding year was ap- 

 pointed Professor of Natural History in that institution. In the same 

 year he was chosen Professor of Chemistry and Natural History in Beloit 

 College, a position which he accepted and continued to occup}'' until 18()6, 

 when he resigned it to accept a professorship in the same departments in 

 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which he held until the time of his 

 death, January 18, 1895. 



Besides the degree of doctor of philosophy which he earned at Gottin- 

 gen, he received the honorary degree of M. D. from Union College and that 

 of LL. D. from Beloit College, and was honored l)y membership in many 

 societies, scientific, industrial and social. 



Professor Nason was a very wide and observant traveler, and much of 

 the breadth and catholicity of sympathy, which were signal elements of 

 his character, was doubtless derived from his wide contact with both 

 humanity and nature. In addition to what has already been indicated, 

 he spent portions of the years of 18G1, 1877, 1878 and 1884 in Europe, 

 his travels ranging from Norway and Finland to the Mediterranean, and 

 his subjects of study from the glaciers of the first to the volcanoes of the 

 last. He was one of the jurors of the Paris Exposition of 1878 in the* 

 department of mineralogy and metallurgy. In this country he traveled 

 extensively in the south and made repeated trips to the Pacific coast, 

 while for eight years he divided his time as a teacher between the east 

 and the interior. His instruction was greatly enriched from the large 

 fund of personal knowledge and experience thus acquired. The writer 

 remembers vividly, across the lapse of nearlv thirty years, many illustra- 

 tions drawn from the great treasure-house of his personal observation. 



Professor Nason was primarily a chemist and mineralogist, and it is 

 not appropriate to this place to dwell in detail ui)on this phase of his 

 work, even though it was the central one. His merits as a chemist will 

 receive due recognition from his colleagues. It is i)leasant to note, how- 

 ever, in passing, that he was chosen a member of several of the foreign 

 as well as of the leading American chemical societies, and that he was the 

 editor of several chemical and mineralogical works. 



