A century of science in America

by Unknown

1826–. Linnæa, Berlin, Halle; from 1882 united with Jahrb. d. K. botan. Gartens.

1828–1840. Magazine of Natural History, London; united 1838 with the Annals of Natural History, and known since 1841 as the Annals and Magazine of Natural History.

1828–. Journal of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, from 1826; earlier (1825) the American Mechanics Magazine.

1832–. Annalen der Chemie (und Pharmacie) often known as Liebig’s Annalen. Leipzig, Lemgo.

The Founder of the American Journal of Science.

The establishment of a scientific journal in this country in 1818 was a pioneer undertaking, requiring of its founder a rare degree of energy, courage, and confidence in the future. It was necessary, not only to obtain the material to fill its pages and the money to carry on the enterprise, but, before the latter end could be accomplished, an audience must be found among those who had hitherto felt little or no interest in the sciences. This great work was accomplished by Benjamin Silliman, “the guardian of American Science,” whose influence was second to none in the early development of science in this country. Before speaking in some detail of the early years of this Journal and of its subsequent history, it is proper that some words should be given to its founder.

Benjamin Silliman, son of a general prominent in the Revolutionary War, was born in Trumbull, Connecticut, on August 8, 1779. He was a graduate of Yale College of the class of 1796. Though at first a student of law and accepted for the bar in Connecticut, he was called in 1802 by President Timothy Dwight—a man of rare breadth of mind—to occupy the newly made chair of chemistry, mineralogy (and later geology) in Yale College at New Haven. To fit himself for the work before him he carried on extensive studies at home and in Philadelphia and spent the year 1805 in travels and study at London and Edinburgh, and also on the Continent. His active duties began in 1806 and from this time on he was in the service of Yale College until his resignation in 1853. From the first, Silliman met with remarkable success as a teacher and public lecturer in arousing an interest in science. His breadth of knowledge, his enthusiasm for his chosen subjects and power of clear presentation, combined with his fine presence and attractive personality, made him a great leader in the science of the country and gave him a unique position in the history of its development.

Much might be said of the man and his work, but, the best tribute is that of James Dwight Dana, given in his inaugural address upon the occasion of his beginning his duties as Silliman professor of geology in Yale College. This was delivered on February 18, 1856, in what was then known as the “Cabinet Building.” Dana says in part:

“In entering upon the duties of this place, my thoughts turn rather to the past than to the subject of the present hour. I feel that it is an honored place, honored by the labors of one who has been the guardian of American Science from its childhood; who here first opened to the country the wonderful records of geology; whose words of eloquence and earnest truth were but the overflow of a soul full of noble sentiments and warm sympathies, the whole throwing a peculiar charm over his learning, and rendering his name beloved as well as illustrious. Just fifty years since, Professor Silliman took his station at the head of chemical and geological science in this college. Geology was then hardly known by name in the land, out of these walls. Two years before, previous to his tour in Europe, the whole cabinet of Yale was a half-bushel of unlabelled stones. On visiting England he found even in London no school public or private, for geological instruction, and the science was not named in the English universities. To the mines, quarries, and cliffs of England, the crags of Scotland, and the meadows of Holland he looked for knowledge, and from these and the teachings of Murray, Jameson, Hall, Hope, and Playfair, at Edinburgh, Professor Silliman returned, equipped for duty,—albeit a great duty,—that of laying the foundation, and creating almost out of nothing a department not before recognized in any institution in America.

He began his work in 1806. The science was without books—and, too, without system, except such as its few cultivators had each for himself in his conceptions. It was the age of the first beginnings of geology, when Wernerians and Huttonians were arrayed in a contest.... Professor Silliman when at Edinburgh witnessed the strife, and while, as he says, his earliest predilections were for the more peaceful mode of rock-making, these soon yielded to the accumulating evidence, and both views became combined in his mind in one harmonious whole. The science, thus evolved, grew with him and by him; for his own labors contributed to its extension. Every year was a year of expansion and onward development, and the grandeur of the opening views found in him a ready and appreciative response....