390 Georqe Jarvis^ Brush. 



returned to Brooklyn. The early education of George was 

 received in private schools in these two places. When fifteen 

 years old he was sent to a school at West Cornwall, Connecticut, 

 kept by Mr. Theodore S. Gold, and it was here that his interest 

 in science was first aroused. Mr. Gold was an admirable 

 teacher for such a student, for he was enthusiastically devoted 

 to mineralogy and other branches of natural history, and had a 

 rare power in arousing the interest of his pupils in these sub- 

 jects. Although young Brush was with Mr. Gold only six 

 months, the effect upon his subsequent career was profound. 

 The evidence of this was not shown, however, at once, for the 

 traditions of the family led him to look forward to a business 

 life. After leaving the West Cornwall school he took a posi- 

 tion with a mercantile house in Maiden Lane, New York City, 

 and remained there about two years ; occasional mineral excur- 

 sions were his only indulgence in science. But fate had a wider 

 career in store for him. In consequence of a serious illness in 

 1848 he was compelled to give up the confining life of business, 

 and it was decided that he should devote himself to farming. 

 This decision led him to come to New Haven in October, 1848, 

 to attend the lectures of Professors John P. Norton and Ben- 

 jamin Silliman, Jr., in agricultural and practical chemistry, 

 recently established in connection with Yale College. The 

 College catalogue for 1848 includes his name as a member of 

 the second class in the " School of Applied Chemistry." His 

 work in New Haven was, however, interrupted when in Octo- 

 ber, 1850, he went to Louisville, Kentucky, as assistant to 

 Professor Benjamin Silliman, Jr., instructor of chemistry and 

 toxicology in the medical department of Louisville University, 

 a position which he retained till the spring of 1852. During 

 this period, in the spring and summer of 1851, he travelled 

 extensively in Europe as one of the party of the elder Pro- 

 fessor Benjamin Silliman. At the Yale commencement of 

 1852, after a special examination made necessary by the absence 

 alluded to, he received the new degree of Ph. B. just estab- 

 lished. It is most interesting that the man who was destined 

 to build up this department of the institution into the strong 

 and flourishing Sheffield Scientific School should have been a 

 member of the first class to receive a degree. In this class of 

 1 852, which began with fourteen members, seven were gradu- 

 ated, four of whom later became prominent in science, and one 

 of these, Professor William H. Brewer, worked shoulder to 

 shoulder with Brush in the work for the School for many 

 years. 



The college year of 1852-53 was spent as assistant in chem- 

 istry at the University of Virginia, and it was here that, associ- 

 ated with Professor J. Lawrence Smith, a series of studies were 

 prosecuted on the "re-examination of American minerals''; three 



