This extensive and helpful publication appeared in 1814 in two octavo volumes of more than 600 pages each. The reader should note that
"The price to subscribers will be $7.00 in boards or $8.00 substantially bound, payable on delivery. Those who procure subscriptions of nine copies and become accountable for their payment shall be entitled to one copy for their trouble."
The book was dedicated to Benjamin Smith Barton. No title of any kind appears after the author's name, indicating that he had probably by the year 1814 severed his connection with all his educational projects in Philadelphia. In the preface the author speaks of
"Having devoted the greater part of his life to chemical pursuits."
Glancing through these volumes the impression made upon the reader was that the author had read widely in the sciences, but particularly in his favorite science, chemistry. The book is really a popular dictionary of chemical technology. While it is sparsely illustrated, early forms of chemical glassware are pictured. From these may be gathered the story of the gradual development of very useful apparatus, for example, such as is used in various kinds of distillation.
That Cutbush had probably ceased his professional duties by the year 1814, as has just been hinted, is further emphasized on noting that he was appointed Assistant Apothecary General in the U. S. Army on the twelfth day of August in the year 1814. What his duties as such may have been has not been discovered. It would not be fair to call it a radical change in position, but it was a change which necessitated Cutbush giving more thought and attention to pharmacy, which in his earlier career was a secondary subject, but in which he was so proficient that he attracted to himself the attention of leading men in medical circles. He was in Philadelphia, prosecuting his duties as late as the year 1819. It is known that during this period he was attached to the Northern Division of the Army.
In 1820 Dr. James Lovell, Surgeon General of the Army, suggested to General Thayer, Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point, that Cutbush be appointed Chief Medical Officer at the Academy and Post of West Point. In this capacity he served for seventeen months, when he became Acting Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in the Academy. The first lecture in his new position was delivered October 9, 1820. In a sense, it marked the beginning of a new career for Cutbush. He resumed teaching duties, but gave himself more particularly to the study, not only of gunpowder, which never ceased to be interesting to him, but to explosives of higher character, and in this latter field he reached his greatest eminence and may confidently be regarded as a pioneer in it.
Just before leaving Philadelphia, in the year 1820, Cutbush wrote Benjamin Silliman at some length on an improvement of the Voltaic electrical lamp. It was an ingenious modification and constituted the first contribution made by Cutbush to the American Journal of Science.
But, returning to his life at West Point, it may be observed that in 1822 he contributed his second article to the Journal of Science, which did not appear in print, however, until 1824. This article related to the composition and properties of the Chinese fire and the so-called brilliant fires. It was very interesting. It displayed a thorough and wide knowledge of pyrotechnics with which Cutbush, in previous years, had been gradually familiarizing himself. At one point he said: