A century of science in America : $b with special reference to the American Journal of Science, 1818-1918
History
A century of science in America : $b with special reference to the American Journal of Science, 1818-1918
American journal of science; Science -- United States -- History
_Silliman’s Students and Their Publications._—Silliman’s first student
to take up geology as a profession was Denison Olmstead (1791–1859),
educator, chemist, and geologist, who was graduated from Yale in 1813.
Four years later he was under special preparation with Silliman in
mineralogy and geology, and in that year was appointed professor of
chemistry in the University of North Carolina. In 1824–1825 Olmstead
issued a Report on the Geology of North Carolina, which is the first
official geological report issued by any state in America, “a
conspicuous and solitary instance,” according to Hitchcock’s review of
it (=14=, 230, 1828), “in which any of our state governments have
undertaken thoroughly to develop their mineral resources.”
Amos Eaton (1776–1842), lawyer, botanist, surveyor, and one of the
founders of American geology, was a graduate of Williams College in the
class of 1799. He studied with Silliman in 1815, attending his lectures
on chemistry, geology, and mineralogy. He also enjoyed access to the
libraries of Silliman and of the botanist, Levi Ives, in which works on
botany and materia medica were prominent, and was a diligent student of
the College cabinet of minerals. He settled as a lawyer and land agent
in Catskill, New York, and here in 1810 he gave a popular course of
lectures on botany, believed to have been the first attempted in the
United States.
In 1818 appeared Eaton’s first noteworthy geological publication, the
Index to the Geology of the Northern States, a text-book for the classes
in geology at Williamstown. The controlling principle of this book was
Wernerism, a false doctrine from which Eaton was never able to free
himself. This book was “written over anew” and published in 1820.
While at Albany in 1818, Governor De Witt Clinton asked Eaton to deliver
a course of lectures on chemistry and geology before the members of the
legislature of New York. It is believed that Eaton is the only American
having this distinction, and because of it he became acquainted with
many leading men of the state, interesting them in geology and its
application to agriculture by means of surveys. In this way was sown the
idea which eventually was to fructify in that great official work: The
Natural History of New York. (See =43=, 215, 1842; and Youmans’ sketch
of Eaton’s life, Pop. Sci. Monthly, Nov. 1890.)
Edward Hitchcock (1793–1864), reverend, state geologist, college
president, and another of the founders of American geology, was largely
self-taught. Previous to 1825, when he entered the theological
department of Yale College, he had met Amos Eaton, who interested him in
botany and mineralogy, and between 1815 and 1819 he had made lists of
the plants and minerals found about his native town, Deerfield,
Massachusetts. Therefore, while studying theology at Yale it was natural
for him also to take up mineralogy and geology with Silliman, whose
acquaintance he had made at least as early as 1818.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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