4
Sheffield, and although the amount an-
nually received from this source was
not large, it seemed so, and was ac-
cepted as a token of public confidence
most timely and encouraging. This
disposition was good for the State and
good for the College, and fully justified
the action of Governor Buckingham
and those who concurred with him in
advocating this appropriation. A long
line of governors from his time onward
testified to the value of such an arrange-
ment. Its termination, after almost
thirty years of harmonious union, is
much to be regretted among the un-
fortunate annals of divorce.
Soon after the reception of this grant,
several members of the Faculty entered
upon an educational campaign which
can hardly be brought to mind, in a
retrospect of this long interval, without
provoking a smile at the enthusiasm
of youth and at the “expulsive power
of a new affection.” The principal
towns of the State were visited, and
the chief men of the tribes were assem-
bled to hear of the new education.
Sometimes in lecture rooms, frequently
in private parlors, once in a court
house, once in the Governor’s room at
Hartford, and once in a fire-engine
room, the story was told with the earn-
estness of conviction, if not with the
graces of eloquence, and with the cer-
tainty not of history but of prophecy.
Dana, a constant friend, had inau-
gurated the campaign some years be-
fore by a public address. |Whitney’s
“Aim and Object” was distributed
freely as a campaign document, and the
newspapers, always responsive to the
claims of the school, echoed these pro-
fessorial utterances in villages and by-
ways. The school did not reap much
money from the farms or mills, but it
made hosts or friends, whose favor has
never departed. One of the most valued
was Horace Bushnell, and Governor
Hawley was another.
But why should further extracts be
read from the book of Chronicles? Let
us rather consider the significance of
the circumstances, gifts, sacrifices,
labors, methods and suggestions which
have made the Sheffield School.
YALE AND SCIENCE.
From beginning to end this institu-
tion has been a department of a univer-
sity, of a university which never sulf-
fered its love of letters to blind its eyes
to the value of science. In the days of
closely restricted income, during the
first half of the century, chemistry,
mineralogy, geology, botany, mathe-
matics, physics, meteorology and astron-
omy were taught in Yale. Nor will
any one think that scientific research
was undervalued if he recalls the pre-
paration of Dana’s Mineralogy, the
light that was thrown on meteoric
showers, the studies of the aurora, and
of the zodiacal light, and the search
for an intra-mercurial planet. Very dif-
ferent would have been the Shefheld
record if it were not associated with the
fame, the fortune and the followers of
a greater alma mater. Substantial ad-
vantages were bestowed by the mother
upon her child—the use of the library
and of the cabinets of mineralogy
and geology. The Peabody Museum,
the Winchester Observatory and the
Street School of Fine Arts shed their
light, like the sun, on all the Uni-
versity, but the gift of George Peabody
especially contributed to the growth of
a school in which mineralogy, geology
and zoology were prominent subjects
of instruction.
Still Sheffield has not been held by
the leading strings of its mother. It
has had a large amount of independ-
ence. Its funds, buildings, appointments
have been its own. The professors
have been its governing board, con-
trolling its courses and its funds, sub-
ject to the oversight of the President
and Fellows. On one occasion, at
least, the Faculty asked permission of
the astonished corporation to reduce
their own salaries, and the request was
granted!
NO “CONFLICT OF STUDIES.”
Thus it has come to pass that no
“conflict of studies’ has been heard of;
no hostility between science and letters;
no “warfare” between science and re-
ligion. The Sheffield School has al-
ways stood for the idea of a liberal edu-
cation in which scientific studies
should predominate, but in which a
moderate amount of Latin and of
modern languages is required; history
and economics are also taught. It is
YALE: ALUMNI
memorable that for a long period the
greatest of American philologists was
the daily instructor in French and Ger-
man; and that the most learned study
ever made of “Dan Chaucer and his
well of English underfyled” proceeded
form a Sheffield chair.
Slight perturbations in the academic
and scientific orbits might interest a
great astronomer, like Newcomb, but
to the ordinary observer they were as
imperceptible as the influence of Nep-
tune upon Uranus.
“PREEDOM UNDER CONTROL.”
Dr. Michael Foster, the English phys-
iologist, in a recent address has called
attention to the fact that the increment
of human knowledge transcends the
power of man to assimilate it. This is
most obvious when a course of. pre-
liminary education is considered. So
many subjects are said to be “of the first
importance,” so many are “indispensa-
ble,” that, like new wine in old bottles,
they have burst the curriculum of our
Fathers and overtaxed the capacities of
youthful recipients. Elective systems,
costly, vexatious and antagonistic to
time-honored traditions, must now be
provided in every college and institute
of technology. It is one of the glories
of the Sheffield that from the beginning
students have here been permitted to
choose a group of studies, the con-
stituents of which were beyond their
choice. “Freedom, under control,”
has been the rule of the house. More-
over these groups have not been set
forth as professional courses, but as
ladders leading up to special callings,
as preliminary to modern professions
and technical pursuits. One of the
most advantageous of these courses has
been preliminary to medicine. . To fol-
low the healing arts, which have made
during the last half-century such won-
derful advances, discipline is requisite
in physics, chemistry, physiology, with
prolonged laboratory practice and in-
creasing familiarity with the normal
functions of organic life. Such courses
were projected here five and twenty
years ago, and gradually the medical
colleges are discovering their value.
The Johns Hopkins Medical School,
for example, allows no student to enter
as a candidate for its four years’ course
unless he has had such a training, sub-
stantially, as that here offered many
years ago, and never so advantageously
as now.
AN INSPIRING DEGREE,
In the matter of Degrees, it is not
possible to distinguish between the re-
quirements of the school and those of
the department of Philosophy and the
Arts, nor is it important, for the greater
includes the less. Certainly Yale and
Sheffield are entitled to the credit of
introducing among American institu-
tions the degree of Doctor of Philoso-
phy, demanding for it a high standard
of attainments, and never bestowing the
honor (not in a single case, so far as
I can remember) by any irregular pro-
motion. This degree has proved a
powerful incentive to scholarship in
this and other universities, and the list
of laureati Yalenses, beginning, in 1861,
with men now celebrated, is a list to be
proud of. It is also noteworthy that
the school has never yielded to the
American tendency to multiply the
forms of the baccalaureate degree, a
multiplication almost as bad as tamper-
ing with the coins of the realm.
A large amount of freedom has been
given to the students outside of the
halls of learning. Twice an application
was made for places at daily prayers in
the college chapel, for scientific stu-
dents; but none were provided, doubt-
less because the building by tradition
and in construction was a collegiate
and not a university chapel, and not
because the scientific students were
considered ‘‘past praying for.” There
has been no common table, no dormi-
tory, no regular general assemblies of
officers and students; on the other hand,
there have been no rebellions against
authority, no disorder, no_ hostility
toward the faculty, no apparent trend
toward irregular life, no lack of college
spirit.
In the annual catalogue for many
years the same phrase has been em-
ployed to express the object of the
Sheffield School. These are the famil-
iar words: :
“The Sheffield Scientific School is de-
MY Say
voted to instruction and researches in
the mathematical, physical and natural
sciences, with reference to the promo-
tion and diffusion of science, and also
to the preparation of young men for
such pursuits as require special pro-
ficiency in these departments of learn-
ing.
_ By these double services this school
is known. Indeed, if you would esti-
mate the value of any institution of
learning, measure its breadth and its
depth; its breadth as revealed in the
number, distribution and attainments of
its pupils, by their success and renown;
its depth, as shown by contributions,
direct and indirect, made by its faculty
and graduates to the advancement of
knowledge.
OF SHEFFIELD GRADUATES.
There is no recent statement of the
occupations of Sheffield graduates; but
the brief phrases of the triennial, and
an extended personal acquaintance, in
places near and remote, justify the fol-
lowing assertions. Nearly two thou-
sand men have here been graduated and
many more have been well trained, ac-
cording to their aptitudes, in science
and in the applications of science to the
useful arts. Many of them have pro-
ceeded to higher degrees, or have
entered at once upon places which led
up to a participation in the construction
of public works, the conduct of indus-
trial establishments, the charge of mills,
mines, surveys and explorations, and
the promotion of public health.
Others, and some of the ablest, have
entered upon the study of medicine.
A large number have been called to
chairs of instruction and investigation.
The earliest’ list of graduates was
prognostic. Six of the seven Bache-
lors of Philosophy became teachers,
one a geologist and an explorer of the
western territory, one the botanist of
the California Geological Survey, and
a third one of the leading mineralogists
of the world. Go to South Africa or
to Japan, or to Turkey, to California
or any of the trans-Mississippi States,
inquire into the work of the United
States Geological Survey, scan the
membership of the National Academy |
of Sciences, look at the Faculty of Yale,
of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology and of many other colleges, and
you will come at once upon the Shef-
field men. :
As an example of their activity, a
most interesting story might be appro-
priately told if the time would permit,
respecting the adventures of a graduate
of 1862, and his friend, in crossing the
continent before the first Pacific Raiul-
road was built, of their map of the
~ Yosemite, and of their mountaineering
in the Sierras, which culminated in the’
ascent of Mount Whitney. Then came
the celebrated exploration of the forti-
eth parallel, and the subsequent organi-
zation of the United States Geological
Survey, of which this distinguished
scholar became the first director. Such
achievements belong to the trophies of
the school.
It is never easy, in a public assembly,
to review the progress of science or to
estimate individual achievements... Many
important contributions have no char-
acteristics which are of interest beyond
the circle of experts, or even intelligi-
ble. The speaker is certainly disquali-
fied from making such a review or from
weighing in a critical balance the ser-
vices of the able men, his personal
friends, who have constituted the
faculty. Their presence forbids him to
pronounce their names; yet he ventures
to recall some facts which are known
even to the inexpert, and to allude to
others which the modesty of the faculty
might be disposed to hide.
You have been reminded that the
analytical laboratory, in the old white
dwelling house (“the lab” of our col-
lege slang), was the first, and for a
time the only “outward sign of inward
grace’ which was shown by the new
school; even now the manifold activi-
ties of five great buildings do but mag-
nify the importance of their elder de-
parted brother. With increasing vigor
and undiminished enthusiasm, the lab-
oratory study of chemistry there begun
has been prosecuted for fifty years,
partly for its own sake and partly be-
cause of its relations to agriculture,
mineralogy, metallurgy and _ physiol-
ogy.
SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE.
Consider agriculture. These are the
days when everybody is conscious that
the welfare of the country, perhaps the
a ES Sh DE ne
stability of the government, is depend-
ent upon “the crops,’ but not evety—
body remembers, when he sees the
heavily laden trains, the well filled ele-
-yators and the wharves burdened wit
wheat, cotton and tobacco, that the
national supplies are largely results ©
advances made by science. Every State
in the Union now has its college ©O
agriculture and the mechanic arts-
was not so when Norton came to Yale-
He was a pioneer in the scientific a&t1~
culture of the United States: and wit
a longer life would have accomplished
much more; for he knew how. He set
the pace. When his mantle fell upo™
Porter, a student of Liebig’s, twenty—
six leading agriculturists, from every
part of the country, were brought to
New Haven, for a conference of many
days, and it would not be. difficult to
show that this unique, primeval example
of university extension had a powerful
influence in promoting, on right princi-
ples, the study of agriculture. This was
in 1860. It was estimated that five
hundred persons irom a distance came
here to follow more or less of these
lectures and discussions. Consequently,
came the national grant associated
with the name of Senator Morrill, an
enactment due in no small .degree to
influences here put forth, From this
congressional bounty, Cornell, Madi-
son, Minneapolis, Berkeley and other
universities of the Western States de-
rive a considerable part of their rev-
enues. :
A pupil of John P. Norton’s soon
took the leadership in agricultural
chemistry, and no one has outstripped
him in the race. His books, his sug-
gestions, his: scientific memoirs, his
researches, and his personal influence
have made the school famous. The list
of his publications is a long one, but it
is more remarkable when tested by
qualitative than by quantitative ana-
lysis.. One of them,, “How. Crops
Grow,” is almost as widespread as the
vegetation it describes. Like the Pil-
grim’s Progress, it is adapted to every
clime. Early in the seventies the
author began to advocate the establish-
ment of experimental stations, and in
due time had the satisfaction of seeing
them established throughout the Union,
while he became director of that in
Connecticut., This achievement alone
reflects great distinction on the Shei-
field School. If it had done nothing
but make and uphold this idea, its cost
would have been repaid.
Closely associated in the promotion
of scientific agriculture has been a dii-
ferent sort of mind, one whose unfail-
ing resources, practical sense, and
varied knowledge sometimes over-
shadow his ability as an investigator
in four important branches of science.
He was long a wanderer on the Paci-
fic slope, collecting plants and experi-
ence, climbing mountains and difficul-
ties; but he returned to New Haven
at the regeneration of the school in
1864-5 and his post-exilian studies have
been directed to heredity, the evolution
of breeds and the transmission of ac-
quired characters, and to the conditions
of public health.
’
NEW HAVEN A MINERALOGICAL CENTER.
New Haven has been a center of
mineralogical inquiry during the entire
century. Its collections, which began
with the famous candle box of Profes-
sor Silliman, were augmented by the
cabinet of Colonel Gibbs, and have
grown into the varied and comprehen-
sive possessions of the Peabody Mu-
seum. These collections inspired the re-
nowned treatise of James D. Dana,
whose work has. been extended and
made more complete by the able fol-
lowers connected with this school.
Important contributions to the science
of mineralogy, involving a great amount
of accurate discrimination, were mod-
estly put forth year after year by the
director of the school as supplements
to Dana’s work. New localities were
visited, and old localities were revis-
ited, always with good results, not only
in beautiful specimens, but also in
positive contributions to science. His
absorbing administrative duties have
not dimmed his enthusiasm nor abated
his energy. He is one of those men,
rare at any period, who carry on the
most special investigations in their own
domain, while they show a broad sym-
pathy with other workers, and a great
capacity for perception, suggestion, en-
couragement and aid.
So in geology. Able investigators
whose observations and publications
have been important have gone hence
