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قراءة كتاب James Cutbush An American Chemist, 1788-1823
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the eminent geologist, and of James B. and Robert E.—both distinguished in the chemical field.
It was in 1802 that Patrick K. Rogers received his medical degree and embarked upon practice. Having spare time, he began public lectures on the sciences, confining himself from 1807 to chemistry. He was very successful. One of his advertisements as it appeared in the Aurora, in 1809, read:
"EVENING LECTURES
MEDICAL AND CHEMICAL
For Gentlemen
DR. P. K. ROGERS
"Having commenced a course of experimental lectures on Chemistry to ladies, proposes to give a similar course to gentlemen at a different hour. Twelve o'clock is the hour fixed for the former, but as the gentlemen of the city are variously engaged in business during the day, an evening hour will be more convenient for them. The evening course is particularly intended to accommodate men who have a taste for scientific information and who cannot, on account of their respective engagements during the day, attend the lectures in the University.
"A course for gentlemen will commence on Tuesday and will terminate in the last week of February. The hour will be seven o'clock in the evening. Two lectures at least, sometimes three, will be delivered every week. About 1500 interesting experiments will be exhibited and submitted to the familiar inspection of the class. Several important experiments not hitherto introduced in any series of chemical demonstrations in this place will be displayed in the illustrations of different subjects.
"The laboratory is in the lecturer's house in South Ninth Street, opposite the University and is furnished with an excellent chemical apparatus.
"The tickets for this course will be ten dollars. The persons to take tickets will be entitled to the use of the lecturer's excellent medical and chemical library during the season.
"Persons wishing to attend this course will please call at the lecturer's home at any time before next Tuesday in order to enter the names on the list.
"Ladies are informed that the list of subscribers to their course will not be closed until next Monday at twelve o'clock at the hour the next lecture, properly the first of the regular series, will be delivered. Gentlemen are not admitted to these lectures."
In 1810 Dr. Rogers gave out a Syllabus of 12 octavo pages "On Experimental Lectures on Natural Philosophy and Chemistry," in which great emphasis was laid on the practical application of these sciences. It also stated that "it is even esteemed, in some measure, a cause of shame, for persons of respectable education, to be ignorant of their general principles." In one newspaper announcement Rogers said that in order to get sufficient space for his audience he had procured the "use of the elegant and spacious ball room of M. Guillou." In this special work he was repeating the labors of Sir Humphrey Davy in London. In reality, Rogers and his contemporaries and coadjutors were pioneer University Extension Lecturers. They sought to popularize the natural and physical sciences and also broaden the vision or outlook of their hearers. In the case of Cutbush there was a strong desire to utilize chemistry in manufacture. This he emphasized more strongly than any other lecturer.
Another participant in the science propaganda was Dr. Thomas P. Jones, who devoted himself to Chemistry. The following notice of his lecture course is not devoid of interest:
"On Saturday, the 13th inst., at seven o'clock in the evening, at Dr. Jones' Chemical Lecture Room, S.W. Corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets, a lecture will be delivered on the properties of nitrous oxide, or the exhilarating gas, accompanied with a number of experiments. A large quantity will be prepared to exhibit its effects when inhaled.
"Tickets at fifty cents each may be had at A. Finley's Bookstore, S.E. Cor. of Chestnut and Fourth Streets, or at the lecture room on the stated evening."
On perusing early chemical texts and advertisements, such as those just given, attention is pointedly called to nitrous oxide, especially to its exhilarating properties, for then it was "laughing gas!" One Philip H. Nicklin published a brochure entitled
"THE ONLY GENTEEL WAY OF GETTING DRUNK
"A character representation of the effects produced by inhaling nitrous oxide gas. The accuracy of which no man breathing can deny. Price 25 cts."
To-day, nitrous oxide means a benign anæsthetic, so helpful and merciful when one is brought under the knife of the skillful surgeon.
The honor accorded Cutbush by his election to the Presidency of the Columbian Chemical Society was merited. He was not only an active, intelligent chemist, devoted to the advancement of his science in all directions, but he seems to have been an ardent enthusiast in the cause of education, for on the 7th of November, 1811, he delivered an Oration on Education before the Society for the Promotion of a Rational System of Education. His audience was large and consisted of the very best people of the city. The printed oration shows that in addition to his chemical knowledge he was versed in the humanities, in mathematics, in philosophy and ancient history. To-day the intelligent reader would pronounce the oration scholarly in every particular. His chief purpose seems to have been to introduce into what was then the customary curriculum in schools a definite amount of science—natural and physical. This is marked in the title of the organization before which he appeared on the occasion referred to, in Old St. John's Church. The whole community was interested in education. A society of educators had existed for a number of years. Neef had for a long time been advocating a system which was in reality a modification of the Pestallozian System, and men in every walk of life were seriously considering the innovations and advancements in this all-important subject.
Little can be found in regard to the Society for the Promotion of a Rational System of Education, but it may be inferred that the society had branches throughout the city and perhaps far beyond, because elsewhere Cutbush spoke of the society as under the Presidency of John Goodman, Esq., and that its purpose was to bring about a reformation in education. Further, Goodman was a prominent layman in the Church of Old St. John, who with his associates, Messrs. Greiner and Braeutigam, fellow churchmen, deeply impressed with the new thought, seem to have established a school "formed out of the Lutheran congregation of the Church of St. John ... instituted several professorships ... one of which, that of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Natural Philosophy" was conferred upon Cutbush, who proceeded to deliver courses on these subjects.
Desirous of learning something in regard to St. John's College, the authorities of St. John's Lutheran Church were consulted. It must be remembered that this is the oldest English-speaking Lutheran Church in America. It was founded by General Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, and a unique distinction of this church is that in a period of 113 years it has had but three pastors. Nothing in the minutes of the church showed that a movement toward the establishment of a college had ever been made. Moreover, search in the archives of the State Department failed to bring to light the granting of a charter for