Edward Hitchcock. — Hitchcock. 135 
While seeking for some means of promoting liealth he was 
led to study plants, animals and minerals, and to the acquaint- 
ance of Prof. Benjamin Silliman. Doubtless the love for sci- 
ence led him to Yale, where he might derive some collateral 
instruction besides- his theology. The early volumes of the 
American Journal' af Science contain many papers based upon 
his early observations, and a lifelong friendship ensued be- 
tween the teacher and the scholar. In 1825 Hitchcock was 
appointed professor of chemistry and natural history in Am- 
herst College and filled this chair till elected to the presidency 
of the same institution in 1845. After nearly ten years of 
service he retvirned to the professorial ranks, teaching only 
geology and its relations to theology for another decade. 
A complete biograph}'^ would find materials for three classes 
of activity. First, he was a philanthropist, theologian and 
devoted minister of the gospel. He believed in the truths of 
Christianity and labored as he had opportunity to better the 
moral condition of society. Second, he was a college professor 
and president and achieved success both in the lecture room 
and in the management of a literary institution. By his pru- 
dence and skill he saved the college from threatened collapse. 
A burdensome debt was removed, handsome endowments se- 
cured and the number of students more than doubled during 
his administration. Third, he was a geologist and his greatest 
successes were connected with this phase of activity. Only 
this part of his work will be here considered. 
The subject of surface geology occupied the attention of 
Mr. Hitchcock from the very beginning of his researches. In 
1823 he explained the origin of deltas, terraces, dispersion of 
drift and polished rock surfaces by the action of moving wa- 
ters or floods. Glaciers were unknown to him and were not 
referred to by any geologist as productive of drift phenomena 
before 1838 when Agassiz first promulgated the glacier theory. 
What are now distinctly known to be moraines were correctly 
described and figured in 1833 as " diluvial elevations and de- 
pressions" and it Avas not till 1812 that he ventured to call 
them moraines, after Agassiz, Buckland, and Lyell. In the 
presidential address of 1841 before the American Association 
of Geologists the main phenomena and facts of glacial dis- 
persion are correctly described and lie seemed almost ready to 
