VOL. 5, NO.2
DR. JOHN WILLIAM MALLET, CHEMISTAND TEACA&R
183
A SKETCH OF DR. JOHN WILLIAM MALLET, AS A CHEMIST AND A TEACHER* F. P. DUNNINGTON, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, UNIVERSITY, V~GINU
Dr. Mallet was born a t Dublm on October 10, 1832. His grandfather was John Mallet of Devonshire and his father, Robert Mallet, a civil engineer and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Under his father's guidance, and given free rein in an excellent scientific library, he early developed a taste for scientific studies. To use his own language: "Reading nearly all of the volumes of Thomson's Annals of Philosophy was serviceable in starting the idea that our knowledge of nature is not complete and embodied in textbooks, but that i t rests on observation and experiment, is constantly growing, and is always subject to modification and correction." At the age of sixteen he had the privilege of private laboratory instruction under Dr. James Apjohn, while attending his lectures on chemistry. In 1850 young Mallet published in the Journal of the Geological .Society of Dublin his first contribution to chemical annals: "A Chemical Examination of Killenite." This analysis copied in Dana's "Mineralogy," 1870, shows that he alone had detected lithia in a specimen of this mineral, and doubtless this circumstance led to the redetermination of the atomic weight of lithium in 1856. Between 1848 and 1850 Mr. Mallet assisted his father in experiments upon the velocity of transmission, in rock and in loose earth, of the shock from a gunpowder explosion. From this work, no doubt, began his special interest in the use and manufacture of gunpowder, which bore fruit a few years later, in his very capable direction and supervision of the making of ammunition for the Confederate States. At this same period he collated, through much reading in different public libraries, the material for a catalog of 597 pages on earthquakes extending from 1606 B.C. to 1842 A.D. This was accomplished before he was twenty-one years of age. The discussion and publication of this report to the British Association was made by his father. In 1851 and 1852 Mr. Mallet worked in the laboratory of Professor Wohler and received the degree of Ph.D. a t Gottingen; his thesis being a reportupon the chemical examination of Celtic antiquities found in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy of Dublin. This work was based chiefly upon thirty-eight analyses of metallic articles. During two vacations he made a pedestrian trip, in German student fashion with knapsack and staff, in company with two Americans, William S. Clark and N. S. Manross, through the mining district of Harz Mountains and some manu*Paper' delivered before the joint meeting of the Section (now ~ivision) of History of Chemistry and the Division of Chemical Education of the A. C. S . ' a t Richmond, Virginia, April 13, 1927.
facturing cities of Belgium and Holland, so obtaining much information upon certain chemical manufactures and metallurgy. Returning to Dublin in 1853, Dr. Mallet graduated as B.A. a t Trinity College, being First Senior Moderator and Gold Medallist in Experimental Physics for that year. Following this he came to the United States to collect information for his father as to the Ericsson Caloric Engine. Here he met his friend Dr. W. S. Clark, then professor of chemistry at Amherst, Massachusetts, and shortly thereafter was elected professor of analytical chemistry in that college. In the Fall of 1854, Dr. Mallet was appointed chemist to the Geological Survey of Alabama and professor of chemistry at the University of Alabama, and while there, he published in the American Journal of Science the analyses of a number of rare minerals. In 1860 he sent to the Royal Society an extended paper on the chemical and physical conditions of the culture of cotton, afterwards published in book form in London. I t was in this investigation that he published a somewhat elaborate study of the physico-chemical properties of soils, demonstrating the powers which different soils possess of retaining some and rejecting other constituents of water solutions of salts passed through them, and so explaining the difficulty of removing some substances from a soil by "washing." Prof. Mallet remained at the University of Alabama until 1861. In July, 1857, he marriedMary E., eldest daughter of Judge John J. Ormond, of the Supreme Court of Alabama. This union fixed his fealty to this country, calling him to enlist as a private in the Confederate cavalry, and soon thereafter he was commissioned as Aide-de-camp on the staff of Gen. R. E. Rhodes, in which position he had some trying service a t the front. Dr. Mallet, then, as throughout his life, a British subject, was given general supervision of the manufacture and supply of ammunition for the Southern Confederacy in which capacity he was most intensely engaged during that war. Some idea of the range of this work may be gathered from the subject of his many reports to Gen. J. Gorgas, Chief of the Ordnance Department: substitutes for mercuric fulminate in filling percussion caps; deterioration of gunpowder exposed to moist air; shells with polyhedral cavity; time-fuses for use a t very long ranges; an electro-magnetic insmment for determining the rate of burning of time-fuses, etc. Possibly this familiarity with ordnance was a factor in the training of the considerable number of his students who have been employed in making explosives. After the surrender in 1865, Col. Mallet was employed in the search for petroleum in Texas, and later became professor of chemistry in the Medical Department of the University of Louisiana, where he organized a practical laboratory course in chemistry for medical students. During the three years passed here, he devoted much time to the study of medicine and, upon leaving, received the degree of M.D. This study of the chemical
side of medicine in after years led to a number of investigations in physiological chemistry and hygiene. In the Spring of 1868 Professor Mallet came to the University of Virginia to organize the School of Analytical and Industrial Chemistry, and in this he conducted what is thought to be the first systematic course of industrial chemistry in the United States. Here he built up the school from which have come many of the professors of chemistry in the colleges of the South and numbers of industrial chemists. In 1872, upon the death of Dr. S. Maupin, Dr. Mallet was made professor of general and industrial chemistry, which work, with a short interval in 1883-84, he conducted with ever-increasing ability and distinction until his retirement as emeritus professor in 1908. Dr. Mallet, while having no oratorical gifts, was one of the best of lecturers, punctual, deliberate, systematic and concise, sparing no pains to prepare each illustration and present every thought with decisive and conspicuous clearness. To use his own words, "In teaching a science one should always have in mind the steps by which mankmd a t large has gradually advanced in knowledge, and should carry the pupil not formally but unconsciously over pretty much the same ground." For many years here, he delivered two courses of lectures, one in general chemistry, introduced by a study in chemical physics, covering the ground in three lectures each week, of an hour and a half each, throughout the session of nine months. In the words of one of his students,' "These lectures were a model of precision and continuity. There was no repetition of language or substance, he never hesitated for a word or a thought, he was never known to fail or bungle in the least in any illustrative experiment he undertook. These lectures in themselves were models of perfection, the matter presented was given so clearly, so definitely and so accurately that an attentive and intelligent man was required to do little else than take a few notes in order to refresh his memory. So impressively were the principles of chemistry photographed on his hearers' mental vision that the facts as well the scientific spirit they involved remained indelibly etched on the mind." The second course in industrial chemistry was presented in the same number of lectures and in the same clear and efficient manner. There was no endeavor to give any technical training in any of these industries, hut solely to describe the process followed and exhibit the materials illustrating the stages of transformations while explaining the chemical changes through which the native or crude material is carried until finally transformed to the finished product. The materials employed as illnstrations in these lectures were collected by purchase and through solicitations of Dr. Mallet from foreign governments, large manufacturers, per' William H.Echals, in AIulnni Bulletin U. Va. Jan., 1913, p. 3.
sonal friends, and friends of the University. Thus was accumulated a large and valuable industrial museum which, in several respects, was not equalled in this country. On the night of January 26,1917, the building which housed this collection was wholly destroyed by fie, so making an irreparable loss of this monument to his energy, knowledge, and efficiency. "It was to the special students in the analytical laboratory that Dr. Mallet was revealed as the great scientist. His exceeding care, power of observation, conservatism and accuracy of thought, were here brought into intimate view. His fine intuition in a problem, his fertility of resource and suggestiveness in processes, his infallibility of experimentation, eliminating loss of time, his generosity, patience, dignity and gentle kindness, his ever ready help and sympathy won not merely the absolute confidence and respect of his men for the unquestioned master, but their admiring and lasting affecti~n."~ The writer was in daily intercourse with him for forty years and the only sarcasm ever heard from him was after listening to an address of an hour's length, proposing to elucidate the teaching of evolution. I remarked to Dr. Mallet, "I could not make anything out of that address;" he replied, "That is most natural, for there was nothing in it." Long is the roll of those who will ever recall with thankfulness the privilege of sitting under his teaching, realizing they were obtaining some insight into the wonders of nature from a master mind and master worker: many, too, here received an inspiration which, in after years, led to vigorous research and confident initiative in the pursuit of their profession. For forty years Professor Mallet continued his teaching here. With mind and body trained to full control, his daily program of life passed into peculiar uniformity of habits; absolutely punctual to all duties and thorough in every undertaking, with no idle moments. As the outcome of this continual diligence he accomplished a very large amount of work of enduring value. He published in all over 200 hundred articlesa upon unfamiliar chemical compounds, unusual minerals, meteors, mineral waters, chemical and physical phenomena, and a number relating to the chemistry of medicine. I n 1877 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and in 1880 presented to this society a revision of the atomic weight of aluminum, so changing this figure to 27.0 in place of 27.2; and in 1889, a revision of the atomic weight of gold, making it 196.9 in place of 196.7. In this investigation seven diierent series of determinations were employed. The highest of these gave 197.225;the lowest 196.722; the mean being 196.910. This article printed in full in the American Chemical Journal, Vol. X I I , No. 2, presents what may well be taken as a model for the most refined of analytical procedure and thoroughness. "06.
cit., p. 5.
LOC.cit., Oct.,1923, p. 432.
\lo&.5, No. 2
DR. JOHN WILLIAMMALLET, CABMIST AND TEACHER
187
As analytical and consulting chemist his services and advice were often sought. In 1880 under the direction of the U. S. National Board of Health, Dr. Mallet conducted an investigation of the chemical methods in use for the determination of organic matter in potable waters. This considerable undertaking required more than a year, with the aid of three assisting chemists: Dr. William A. Noyes in the laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Charles Smart, U. S. A,, in Washington, and Dr. J. A. Tanner, U. S. N., a t the University of Virginia, all working upon specimens of each of these waters a t the same time. The results of this investigation (on 160 samples) were published in the Report of the National Board of Health for 1882. In this monumental work he established some degree of harmony and restored confidence in a field of analysis where, from conflicting judgments, a remarkably bitter discord had arisen between some very enthusiastic and capable chemists. Among many appointments of honor and trust, Dr. Mallet was upon three occasions on the Assay Commission of the United States, a Judge of Awards a t the International Exposition of 1876 a t Philadelphia, also officially connected with the expositions a t Chicago, 1893, and a t St. Louis in 1904; and a member of the American Committee for the International Congress of Applied Chemistry for 1903 a t Berlin and for 1906 a t Rome. He was one of the founders of the American Chemical Society and was President in 1882. He was also a fellow or member of eighteen other scientific societies of national repute in the United States and foreign countries. Dr. Mallet's work went outside of the routine that characterizes the lecture room and the laboratory and included the writing of many articles and papers covering a variety of subjects connected with his profession. He delivered many addresses, mostly of a technical character; while his reputation as a toxicologist caused him to be sought as an expert in a number of important criminal and quasi-criminal trials. He submitted a number of reports upon the water supplies of towns and cities, reviews of books for the American Chemical Journal, reviews of more recent advances in the applications of chemistry, and addresses to medical societies. After teaching for fifty years, Dr. Mallet accepted the offer of a retiring allowance from the Carnegie Fund, ceasing to teach, but continuing active in his profession up to his last sickness. He never strove for place or power, but, in all positions and under all circumstances, quietly and simply did his duty to the best of his very superior ability, with absolute integrity and no thought of self, but with utmost consideration for others. He was a devout Christian, a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, very reserved, but very direct in expression of his faith when there was any occasion for it. After a brief illness, Dr. Mallet closed his useful and honored life on November 6, 1912, a t the University of Virginia.
Most appropriate is the inscription on his tomb: "Doctor Miles Vi7 Nobilis."
