CHEMISTRY AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY-A
RETROSPECT
WILLW H. NICHOLS, ALLIEDCHEMICAL AND DYECORPORATION, NEWYORKCITY
It will generally he admitted that the education of the preparatory or high-school student would he more likely to attain its greatest nsefulness if he could determine for himself what he wanted to make of his life, instead of drifting towards general results. This is one of the most important decisions he will ever he called upon to make. I say "determine for himself," as he will be much more likely to succeed if his profession or occupation he agreeable to him, and he would not be likely to choose any other. Parents should take note of this almost self-evident proposition. The difficulty of getting a youth to think seriously of his future is recognized and not easily understood, but i t is a general experience. Sometimes it happens that a flash of light, unsought and unexpected, shows the way. Happy is the youth who catches its meaning and follows its lead. My own experience furnishes an illustration. My attention was directed toward chemistry while I was a student a t Brooklyn Polytechnic, when i t was a prep school pure and simple. I knew hut little about the subject and happened on it because i t was printed in the catalog as a part of my course. At the very first lecture, the teacher, good old Prof. Geo. W. Plympton, spoke of "hydrochloric acid" and I was fascinated with the name, although I did not know what it was. The mention of that acid decided my life work. It might have been diierent if the professor had spoken of "muriatic acid"-another name for the same thing. I think it was the sonorous "hydrochloric" that captured my fancy. At any rate, I pitched into chemistry. This introduction to a great subject was followed by two years of laboratory work a t the Polytechnic, backed up by numerous lectures, and the study of hooks. The result confirmed my choice and I became more and more delighted with chemistry as time passed on. When I finished my course a t the Polytechnic I had no doubt whatever as to what I was going to do in the future. After a few months a t Cornell, a t the very beginning of that splendid institution, hut where, unfortunately, I got no chemistry, I made up my mind that the best preparation I could make would be to select some great man and study under his supervision. After carefully considering this, I decided on Professor John W. Draper, of N. Y. U., as the most outstanding of all the chemists of that time. I entered N. Y. U. early in the year 1869 and found myself a t once enjoying the lectures of the great man who had so much attracted me, assisted as be was by his two sons, Dr. John and Dr. Henry, as we called them. Dr. Draper's lectures were given a t the old University Building on Washington Square and, as might have been expected, were as far advanced as knowledge of the science of
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CEEMISTRY AT NEWYORK UNIVERSITY
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chemistry a t that time permitted. More or less chemical engineering was included, but that field had not then been explored much. Dr. Draper had a frequent visitor in the person of General W. T. Sherman, who, when he came, passed through the lecture room and went into Dr. Draper's private office. Of course, we were like other young men and formed all kinds of opinions as to the reason for General Sherman's visits. We concluded, without any reason whatever, that the matter under discussion concerned the transmutation of metals. Whatever may have been Dr. Draper's views on that subject, he certainly never told his class. I was once recounting this to Sir William Ramsay, giving him our opinion on the subject of the conversation between the two great men i n t h e private o f f i c e . Sir William's answer was "Why not?" The laboratory where I worked was in the Medical College on 26th Street. Dr. Draper himself did not often officiatethere, but one of his sons was always present, and an excellent instructor named Stratford. The work a t Washington Square took up the morning; the afternoon to a late hour was spent a t the laboratory where, frequently, I was the only student. Chemistry in those days was not as popular a subject as i t now is, which may account for the smallness of the class. This fact, however, enabled the professors to concentrate on me, and I have no doubt this was a real streak of luck. At any rate, when I received my B.S. degree in '70, I had a higher opinion of my chemical ability than I have ever had s i n c e a n experience of many better men. Before the year was out I had begun to put it a t work, and have been a t i t ever since. There were few chemists in those days and, as far as I can recollect, no chemical engineers, as we now understand that term. There was no place provided in New York for general meetings and discussions. One of the results of this unfortunate situation was that the members of our profession had little opportunity to widen their acquaintance beyond the
men they met in the course of their work, and in my case these were very few indeed. I, therefore, accepted with enthusiasm an invitation to attend a meeting on April 6, 1876, for the purpose of organizing the American Chemical Society. It was held in the old N. Y. U. building on Washington Square, N. Y., and was attended by thirty-six chemists, most of whom I had never met before. Of these thirty-six, only two or three are left. Dr. Chas. F. Chandler, for so many years the dean of the profession, occupied the chair. He announced with pride that a hundred or more chemists, qualifiedto join the Society, were living in New York or within a short radius of it. After much discussion, the Society was launched and candidates for its offices were nominated. At an adjourned meeting April ZOth, this ticket was elected with slight modifications. Thus my chosen teacher, Dr. John W. Draper, became the first president of the little organization destined to become by far the largest chemical society in the world. Dr. Draper's inaugural address was delivered November 16, 1876, in Chickering Hall, N. Y., before a large gathering. After a few congratulatory remarks, he said: Let us consider somk of the reasons which would lead us t o expect success, not only for our own, hut also for other kindred satieties. The field of nature is ever widening hrforc 11,; the h:xrrrsl is 1,rrorning more ahundnnt and tempting, t h e reapers a r r more numerous. liaclt scar the product that is gilrnrrt:d rrceals that of the prccrding Perhaps then, you .ill listrn \rithuut imlmti:ncr f ~ . ar few minut*s this cvcniol: to on? of the laborer%\rho has taken part in the toll of the grncr~tiunn o s i l n i d h g its sork, who looks bark nut uithout n i~ntirnrntof wide on what that gcnrratinn haz dnnr.,\rho points out t o you the duties and rewards that are awaiting you, and welcomes you to your task.
The address made a great impression and opened a wonderful prospect. Its concluding words are equally inspiring: Let ul; continue our labor unobtrusively, conscious of the integrity of our motives, conscious of the portentous change which is taking place in the thought of the world, conscious of the irresistible power which is behind us! Let us not return railing far railing, but above all, let us deliver unflinchingly to others the truths that Nature has delivered to us. The book of Nature! Shall not we chemists, and all our brother students, whether they be naturalists, astronomers, mathematicians, geologists, shall we not all humbly and earnestly read it? Nature, the mother of us all, has inscribed her unfading, her eternal record on the canopy of the skies, she has put it all around us on the platfom of the earth! No man can tamper with it, no man can interpolate or falsify it for his own ends. She does not command us what t o do, nor order us what to think. She only invites us to look around. For those who reject her shehas in reserve no reveng$s, no social ostracism, no index eapurgatorius, no auto d a lb! To those who in purity of spirit worship in her heaven-pavilioned temple, she offers her guidance to that cloudy shrine in which Truth sits enthroned, "dark with the excess of light!" Thither are repairing, not driven by tyranny, hut of their own accord, increasing crowds from all countries of the earth, consdous t h a t whatever their dissensions of opinion may heretofore have been, in her presence they will find intellectual concord and unity.
I n the early seventies of the last century, the chemistry department a t N. Y. U. was certainly a simple affair, as was the case in most colleges. Since that time, under able heads, it has kept abreast of the phenomenal progress of the science. I believe that in the future its contribution to the welfare of the world will be worthy of its great opportunities.
