70 The American Geolo(/ist. August, 1895. 
into town and occupied a house near a printing office. The 
son, often observing the process of printing, became ardently 
desirous of becoming a printer. But his father earnestly de- 
sired him to study medicine. About this time he secured em- 
ployment as clerk in the banking house of Mr. Winn. While 
thus engaged a Mr. Snell visited Lexington giving illustrated 
popular science lectures. Mr. Winn being an old acquaintance, 
Mr. Snell called to see him. Mr. Winn being absent, Mr. Snell 
presented the clerk with a ticket to the exhibition. The exhi- 
bition chiefly consisted of illustrations in chemistry and elec- 
tricity. Heretofore young Norw^ood's evenings had been dull, 
but they were no longer so. A love for experimental science 
was then born in him. With the assistance of a tinner and with 
lenses obtained from a watchmaker he constructed a magic 
lantern. He prepared his own slides, using ivory black for 
outlines, a few transparent colors and colorless varnish. With 
bottles, a pane of glass, tin-foil, a stick of sealing wax, a skein 
of silk and elder pith a few electrical experiments were made. 
He next entered a printing office, and afterwards purchased 
a new^spaper and continued in that business for several years. 
The greater part of 1827 was spent in travelling. In 1828 he 
published a journal of medicine and in 1829 the "Christian 
Examiner." In 1830 Norwood and Palmer were engaged in 
printing and publication in Louisville, Kentucky. Norwood 
soon after sold out and determined to devote himself to the 
study of medicine and the sciences. He already had begun 
to devote all of his leisure to the study of scientific books. In 
the meantime he took control of the "Lexington Intelligencer" 
for a year, but finding that this interfered with his medical 
studies he soon withdrew and pursued his study of medicine 
at Transylvania Medical College. Toward the close of the 
second session of his medical course, althougli he was in- 
formed that he could secure a diploma, he determined to wait 
another year as he was not altogether satisfied with his ac- 
quirements. Without solicitation the entire faculty gave him 
recommendations and he at once entered upon the practice of 
medicine, and by the end of the year he was possessed of a 
large practice. The next year (1836) he returned to Lexing- 
ton, wrote out a thesis on spinal diseases, and in March he 
graduated. 
