Part 9

It is difficult at this date to give any adequate statement of the amount of encouragement and active assistance given to Silliman by his scientific colleagues in New Haven and elsewhere—a subject earlier alluded to. It is fortunately possible, however, to acknowledge the generous aid received by the Journal in the early days from a source near at hand. It has already been noted in another place that the dawning activity of science at New Haven was recognized by the founding of the “Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences,” formally established at New Haven in 1799 and the third scientific body to be organized in this country. From the beginning of the Journal in 1818, the Connecticut Academy freely gave its support both in papers for publication and at least on one occasion later it gave important financial aid. Upon the occasion of the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the Academy on October 11, 1899, Professor, later Governor, Baldwin, the president of the Academy, discusses this subject in some detail. He says in part:

To support his [Silliman’s] undertaking, a vote had been passed in February , “that the Committee of Publication may allow such of the Academy’s papers as they think proper, to be published in Mr. Silliman’s Scientific Journal.”

Free use was made of this authority, and a large part of the contents of the Journal was for many years drawn from this source. In some cases this fact was noted in publication; but in most it was not....

In 1826, when the Journal was in great need of financial support, the Academy further voted to pay for a year the cost of printing such of its papers as might be published in it. In Baldwin’s Annals of Yale College, published in 1831, it is described as a publication “honorable to the science of our common country,” and having “an additional value as being adopted as the acknowledged organ of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences.”

Many active campaigns were carried on over the country through paid agents to obtain new subscribers for the Journal and it was doubtless due to these efforts that the nominal subscription list was, at times, as already noted, relatively large as compared with that of a later date. The new subscribers in many cases, however, did not remain permanently interested, often failed to pay their bills, and the uncertain and varying demand upon the supply of printed copies was doubtless one reason why many single numbers became early out of print.

An interesting sidelight is thrown upon the efforts of Silliman to interest the public in his work, at its beginning, by a letter to the editor from Thomas Jefferson, then seventy-five years of age. The writer is indebted to Mr. Robert B. Adam of Buffalo for a copy of this letter and its interest justifies its being reproduced here entire. The letter is as follows:

Monticello, Apr. 11. ’18.

Sir

The unlucky displacement of your letter of Mar 3 has been the cause of delay in my answer. altho’ I have very generally withdrawn from subscribing to or reading periodical publications from the love of rest which age produces, yet I willingly subscribe to the journal you propose from a confidence that the talent with which it will be edited will entitle it to attention among the things of select reading for which alone I have time now left. be so good as to send it by mail, and the receipt of the 1st number will be considered as announcing that the work is commenced and the subscription money for a year shall be forwarded. Accept the assurance of my great esteem and respect.

Th. Jefferson

Professor Silliman.

Contributors.—An interesting summary is also given by Silliman of the contributors to the Journal and the extent of their work (vol. =50=, pp. xii, xiii); he says:

We find that there have been about 600 contributors of original matter to the Journal, and we have the unexpected satisfaction of believing that probably five-sixths of them are still living; for we are not certain that more than fifty are among the dead; of perhaps fifty more we are without information, and if that additional number is to be enrolled among the “stelligeri,” we have still 500 remaining. Among them are not a few of the veterans with whom we began our career, and several of these are still active contributors. Shall we then conclude that the peaceful pursuits of knowledge are favorable to long life? This we think is, cœteris paribus, certainly true: but in the present instance, another reason can be assigned for the large amount of survivorship. As the Journal has advanced and death has removed its scientific contributors, younger men and men still younger, have recruited the ranks, and volunteers have enlisted in numbers constantly increasing, so that the flower of the host are now in the morning and meridian of life.

We have been constantly advancing, like a traveller from the equinoctial towards the colder zones,—as we have increased our latitude, stars have set and new stars have risen, while a few planetary orbs visible in every zone, have continued to cheer us on our course.

The number of articles, almost exclusively original, contained in the Journal is about 1800, and the Index will show how many have been contributed by each individual; we have doubtless included in this number some few articles republished from foreign Journals—but we think they are even more than counterbalanced by original communications without a name and by editorial articles, both of which have been generally omitted in the enumeration.

Of smaller articles and notices in the Miscellany, we have not made any enumeration, but they evidently are more numerous than the regular articles, and we presume that they may amount to at least 2500.

Of party, either in politics or religion, there is no trace in our work; of personalities there are none, except those that relate to priority of claims or other rights of individuals. Of these vindications the number is not great, and we could heartily have wished that there had been no occasion for any.

General Scope of Articles.—Many references will be found in the chapters following which throw light upon the character and scope of the papers published in the Journal, particularly in its early years; a few additional statements here may, however, prove of interest.

One feature that is especially noticeable is the frequent publication of articles planned to place before the readers of the Journal in full detail subjects to which they might not otherwise have access. These are sometimes translations; sometimes republications of articles that had already appeared in English periodicals; again, they are exhaustive and critical reviews of important memoirs or books. The value of this feature in the early history of the Journal, when the distribution of scientific literature had nothing of the thoroughness characteristic of recent years, is sufficiently obvious.

It is also interesting to note the long articles of geological description and others giving lists of mineral or botanical localities. Noteworthy, too, is the attempt to keep abreast of occurring phenomena as in the many notes on tornadoes and storms by Redfield, Loomis, etc.; on auroras at different localities; on shooting stars by Herrick, Olmstead and others.

The wide range of topics treated of is quite in accordance with the plan of the editor as given on an earlier page. Some notes, taken more or less at random, may serve to illustrate this point. An extended and quite technical discussion of “Musical Temperament” opens the first number (=1=, pp. 9–35) and is concluded in the same volume (pp. 176–199). An article on “Mystery” is given by Mark Hopkins, A.M., “late a tutor of Williams College” (=13=, 217, 1828). There is an essay on “Gypsies” by J. Griscom (from the Revue Encyclopédique) in volume =24= (pp. 342–345, 1833), while some notes on American gypsies are added in vol. =26= (p. 189, 1834). The “divining rod” is described at length in vol. =11= (pp. 201–212, 1826), but without giving any comfort to the credulous; on the contrary the last paragraph states that “the pretensions of diviners are worthless, etc.” A long article by J. Finch on the forts of Boston harbour appeared in 1824 (=8=, 338–348); the concluding paragraph seems worthy of quotation:

“Many centuries hence, if despotism without, or anarchy within, should cause the republican institutions of America to fade, then these fortresses ought to be destroyed, because they would be a constant reproach to the people; but until that period, they should be preserved as the noblest monuments of liberty.”

The promise to include the fine arts is kept by the publication of various papers, as of the Trumbull paintings (=16=, 163, 1829); also by a series of articles on “architecture in the United States” (=17=, 99, 1830; =18=, 218, 220, 1830) and others. Quite in another line is the paper by J. W. Gibbs (=33=, 324, 1838) on “Arabic words in English.” A number of related linguistic papers by the same author are to be found in other volumes. Papers in pure mathematics are also not infrequent, though now not considered as falling within the field of the Journal.

Applied science takes a prominent place through all the volume of the First Series. An interesting paper is that on Eli Whitney, containing an account of the cotton gin; this is accompanied by an excellent portrait (=21=, 201–264, 1832). The steam engine and its application are repeatedly discussed and in the early volumes brief accounts are given of the early steamboats in use; for example, between Stockholm and St. Petersburg (=2=, 347, 1820); Trieste and Venice (=4=, 377, 1822); on the Swiss Lakes (=6=, 385, 1823). The voyage of the first Atlantic steamboat, the “Savannah,” which crossed from Savannah to Liverpool in 1819, is described (=38=, 155, 1840); mention is also made of the “first iron boat” (=3=, 371, 1821; =5=, 396, 1822). A number of interesting letters on “Steam Navigation” are given in vol. =35=, 160, 162, 332, 333, 336; some of the suggestions seem very quaint, viewed in the light of the experience of to-day.

A very early form of explosive engine is described at length by Samuel Morey (=11=, 104, 1826); this is an article that deserves mention in these days of gasolene motors. Even more interesting is the description by Charles Griswold (=2=, 94, 1820) of the first submarine invented by David Bushnell and used in the Revolutionary War in August, 1776. An account is also given of a dirigible balloon that may be fairly regarded as the original ancestor of the Zeppelin (see =11=, 346, 1826). The whole subject of aërial navigation is treated at length by H. Strait (=25=, pp. 25, 26, 1834) and the expression of his hopes for the future deserve quotation:

“Conveyance by air can be easily rendered as safe as by water or land, and more cheap and speedy, while the universal and uniform diffusion of the air over every portion of the earth, will render aërial navigation preferable to any other. To carry it into effect, there needs only an immediate appeal on a sufficiently large scale, to experiment; reason has done her part, when experiment does hers, nature will not refuse to sanction the whole. Aërial navigation will present the works of nature in all their charms; to commerce and the diffusion of knowledge, it will bring the most efficient aid, and it can thus be rendered serviceable to the whole human family.”

A subject of quite another character is the first discussion of the properties of chloroform (chloric ether) and its use as an anæsthetic (Guthrie, =21=, 64, 405, 1832; =22=, 105, 1832; Levi Ives, =21=, 406). Further interesting communications are given of the first analyses of the gastric juice and the part played by it in the process of digestion. Dr. William Beaumont of St. Louis took advantage of a patient who through a gun-shot wound was left with a permanent opening into his stomach through which the gastric juice could be drawn off. The results of Dr. Beaumont and of Professor Robley Dunglison, to whom samples were submitted, are given in full in the life of Beaumont by Jesse S. Myer (St. Louis, 1912). The interest of the matter, so far as the Journal is concerned, is chiefly because Dr. Beaumont selected Professor Silliman as a chemist to whom samples for examination were also submitted. An account of Silliman’s results is given in the Beaumont volume referred to (see also =26=, 193, 1834). Desiring the support of a chemist of wider experience in organic analysis, he also sent a sample through the Swedish consul to Berzelius in Stockholm. After some months the sample was received and it is interesting to note in a perfectly fresh condition; it is to be regretted, however, that the Swedish chemist failed to add anything to the results already obtained in this country (=27=, 40b, 1835).

The above list, which might be greatly extended, seems to leave little ground for the implied criticism replied to by Silliman as follows (=16=, p. v, 1829):