Part 13 (1/2)
It should be remembered that in those days the use of anaesthetics had not yet been discovered, and every operation had to be performed upon the conscious subject, as he lay strapped upon the table shrieking with agony To perform an operation under such circumstances required an iron nerve Dr Mott was one of the first to recognize the value of anaesthetics, and his use of thereatly facilitated their rapid and general introduction
It is one of the boasts of American medicine that the first man in the world to conceive the idea that the adical operation painless was an Araduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1839 When a student, he had once inhaled ether for its intoxicant effects, and while partially under the influence of the drug, had noticed that a chance blow to his shi+n produced no pain This gave hiical operations, and on March 30, 1842, at Jefferson, Georgia, he used it with entire success He repeated the experiment several times, but he did not entirely trust the evidence of these experi the discovery until he had subjected it to further tests, and while these experi on, another American, Dr W T G
Morton, of Boston, also hit upon the great discovery and announced it to the world
Dr Morton was a dentist who, in 1841, introduced a new kind of solder by which false teeth could be fastened to gold plates Then, in the endeavor to extract teeth without pain, he tried stinetism without success, and finally sulphuric ether On September 30, 1846, he administered ether to a patient and removed a tooth without pain; the next day he repeated the experiment, and the next Then, filled with the immense possibilities of his discovery, he went to Dr
J C Warren, one of the foreeons of Boston, and asked permission to test it decisively on one of the patients at the Boston hospital during a severe operation The request was granted, and on October 16, 1846, the test was eons and students The patient slept quietly while the surgeon's knife was plied, and awoke to an astonished comprehension that the dreadful ordeal was over The ias it had never received before, and Areatest triumph Swiftly as steam could carry it, the splendid neas heralded to all the world, and its truth was soon established by repeated experiments
To tell of the work of the ery and medicine is a task quite beyond the compass of this little volume There are at least a score whose achievements are of the first ireat science, which has for its aiher develop the physicists of the country, Joseph Henry takes a high place
His boyhood and youth were passed in a struggle for existence He was placed in a store at the age of ten, and ree of fifteen he was apprenticed to a watche, but during a brief illness, he started to read Dr Gregory's ”Lectures on Experimental Philosophy, Astronomy and Chemistry,” and forthwith decided to becoed to take a course of instruction at the academy at Albany, New York, and finally, in 1826, was an a series of brilliant experiments in electricity which have linked his nainal investigators in that branch of science which this country has ever produced His first as the i forms of apparatus, and his first inet His developraph a possibility Two years later he was called to the chair of natural philosophy at Princeton University, where he continued his investigations, many of which have been of permanent value to science In 1846, he was elected first secretary of the Ston, where the last forty years of his life were passed in the developreat scientific establishment of which he was the head He steadily refused thetheht have answered, when teer salaries, ”I cannot afford to waste ely due the establishhthouse system, as well as that of the national weather bureau
Besides his services to Aassiz rendered another when he persuaded Arnold Guyot, his colleague in the college at Neuchatel, to accompany him to this country Guyot was at that tiist and naturalist, and the delivery of a series of lectures before the Lowell Institute, established his reputation in this country He was soon invited to the chair of physical geography and geology at Princeton, which he held until his death He founded the museum at Princeton, which has since become one of the best of its kind in the United States Perhaps he is best known for the series of geographies he prepared, and which were at one tihout the United States
Perhaps no family has been more closely associated with Auenot Le Conte, who settled at New Rochelle, New York, about the close of the seventeenth century,afterwards to New Jersey There, in 1782, Lewis Le Conte was born He was graduated at Colue of seventeen and started to study eia There he established a botanical garden and a laboratory in which he tested the discoveries of the chemists of the day His death resulted fro a wound for a member of his fathe practice of his profession at Savannah, Georgia, was called to the chair of natural philosophy and chee, and after some years in educational work, was appointed professor of physics and industrial mechanics in the University of California, which position he held until his death, serving also for some years as president of the University His scientific work extended over a period ofconfined almost exclusively to physical science, in which he was one of the first authorities
Another son of Lewis, Joseph Le Conte, like his brother, studied medicine and started to practice it; but in 1850, attracted by the great work being done by Louis Agassiz, he entered the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard, devoting his attention especially to geology After holding a nuy and natural history in the University of California in 1869, and his inal investigations in geology, which placed hiists
Lewis Le Conte had a brother, John Eathan Le Conte, as also widely known as a naturalist of unusual attainments He published y, and collected a vast amount of material for a natural history of American insects, only a part of which was published His son, John Lawrence Le Conte, was a pupil of Agassiz, and conducted extensive explorations of the Lake Superior and upper Mississippi regions, and of the Colorado river He afterwards ypt and Algiers, collecting material for a work on the fauna of the world, which, however, was left uncompleted at his death
American science recently suffered a heavy loss in the death of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, one of the assiz, and froical depart to the full professorshi+p in geology, which he held for over twenty years, and to the position of dean of the Lawrence Scientific School He did e of the development of the science by frequent popular articles in the leading azines, in addition to more technical books andscientists, we can do no more than mention a few Perhaps the hs, a nature philosopher, if there ever was one, a keen observer of the life of field and forest, and the author of a long list of lovable books One of the leaders in the ”return to nature” movement which has reached such wide proportions of recent years, he has held his position as its prophet and interpreter against the assaults of younger, etic, but narrower men
Prominent in the same field is Liberty Hyde Bailey, since 1903 director of the College of Agriculture at Cornell University His early training took place under Asa Gray, and his attention has been devoted principally to botanical and horticultural subjects He has writtenhis Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, which has just been completed Other recent important contributions to science have been , whose work has dealt principally with American insects, and whose recent book on that subject has been recognized as a standard authority; by Charles Edward Bessey, professor of botany at the University of Nebraska since 1884, a pupil of Dr Asa Gray and the author of a number of valued books upon the subject which has been his life work; by George Frederick Barker, now emeritus professor of physics in the University of Pennsylvania, and the recipient of high honors at home and abroad; and by many others whom it is not necessary to oing that Aenius--no men, that is, to rank with Darwin, or Huxley, or Lord Kelvin, or Sir Isaac Newton, to lishmen Its record has been one of respectable achieveinality, but is yet one of which we have no reason to be ashamed
Most of the men mentioned in this chapter have, in the widest sense been educators Agassiz, Gray, Silliman, Guyot--all were educators in the fullest and truest way It remains for us to consider a few others who have labored in this country for the spread of knowledge That the present educational systerowth, but has been carefully fostered and directed, goes without saying It is the result, first, of a wise interest and support on the part of the state, which early recognized the i its citizens, and, second, of the self-sacrificing efforts of a nuent, earnest, and public-spirited men
One of the first of these was Horace Mann, born in Massachusetts in 1796, the son of a poor farain an education was a desperate one, and its story cannot but be inspiring As a child he earned his school books by braiding straw, and his utes of ten and twenty, could secure hi in any one year Consequently he enty-three years of age when he graduated frohteen, as would have been the case had he had the usual opportunities He went to work at once as a tutor in Latin and Greek, studied laas adislature and afterwards to the senate, and finally entered upon his real work as secretary to the Massachusetts board of education
He introduced a thorough reform into the school systeh European schools, and by his lectures and writings awakened an interest in the cause of education which had never before been felt His reports were reprinted in other states, attaining the widest circulation It is noteworthy that as early as 1847, he advocated the disuse of corporal punishment in school discipline After a service of so which he threw all his influence against slavery, he accepted the presidency of Antioch College, at Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he continued until his death It was there that the experiment of co-education was tried, and found to work successfully, and the foundations laid for one of the her school education in Ae, also in Ohio, had by a few years preceded Dr Mann's experireat reputation as an educator caused his ardent advocacy of co-education to carry great weight with the public From this time on it became a custom, as state universities opened in the west, to adradually spread to the east and even to soes supported by private endowreat universities, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, which have done so alaxy of brilliant names On the list of Harvard presidents, three stand out pre-eminent--Josiah Quincy, Edward Everett, and Charles Williareat Massachusetts Quincys, graduated at Harvard in 1790 at the head of his class, studied law, drifted inevitably into politics, held a number of offices, which do not concern us here, and finally, after a remarkable term as mayor of Boston, was, in 1829, chosen president of Harvard The work that he did there was i which continued in use for over forty years; instituted the elective system, which permitted the student to shape his course of study to suit the career which he had chosen; secured large endowments, and, when he retired froe in the fore Edward Everett, as president of the college from 1846-49, was more prominent as a statesman than as an educator, and an outline of his career will be found in ”Men of Action” The third of the trio, Charles Williae covered a period of forty years, is rightly regarded as one of the greatest, if not the greatest educator this country has produced
[Illustration: ELIOT]
Graduating froe of nineteen, he devoted his attention principally to che, and of study in Europe, was, in 1865, appointed professor of chey The saovernislature to the graduates of the college The effect of the change was greatly to strengthen the interest of the aluement of the university, and to prepare the way for extensive and thorough reforht man for president and finally, in 1869, Prof Eliot was chosen
That the righthasStork,” wrote Oliver Wendell Holy at Harvard, to John Motley ”Mr
Eliot makes the corporationof every faculty, ours a the rest, and keeps us up to eleven and twelve o'clock at night discussing new arrange amused at sorave youngtopsy turvy, taking the reins into his hands and driving as if he were the first man that ever sat on the box