Herbert T. PraH E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.
Wilmington, Delaware
John Vaughan's Public Lectures on Chemical Philosophy (1799)
W o u l d you select Christmas Eve at six o'clock sharp as an appropriate time to begin a series of public lect,ures on chemistry? In 1799, someone did! The sponsor of these lectures was The Philosophical Society of Delaware; the lecturer was Dr. John Vaughan. The Societ,ywas organized in Wilmington in 1799 for the purpose of "disseminating scientific and practical knowledge." I t met in the new town hall for a rental of ten dollars a year. Doctor Joseph Priestley heartily endorsed the new group:
sort of systematic presentation. To remove this impediment, Dr. Vaughan wrote a simple, up-to-date textbook based on the work of Lavoisier. It listed both the old and new chemical names and discussed chemistry in six divisions, e.g., salts, earths, metals, inflammable~,waters, and airs. There were also brief sections on chemical affinity, fermentation, caloric, oxidation, amalgamation, and vegetable and animal substances. Entitled "Chemical Syllabus," the hook consisted of 19 pages and sold for 25 c e n h 3
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I rejoice t o hear of t h e Societv.. . I t cannot fail t o give great satisfaction t o all the friends of science in this country. . . . Though you may lshor, a t present, under some disadvantages. . . the resolution t o make a beginning is everything.'
Dr. Vaughan was the town's most popular physician and although scarcely 24 years old, was one of its busiest and best known citizens. Besides building a fine practice during his three years in Wilmington, he also had edit,ed a semi-weekly newspaper and had been active in politics and in the state medical~ociety.~Having studied a t Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Hospital, Dr. Vaughan's interest in chemistry may have been stimulated by Dr. Caspar Wistar, a physician a t the hospital, who formerly had been professor of chemistry a t the College of Philadelphia. The chemistry course was designed to have universal appeal. Tuition for an entire family was only five dollars, as proclaimed by newspaper advertisements of December, 1799 (see photograph). Seeking participants, a member boasted to a women's organization that the Society's pneumatical apparatus was the most complete in America and that the demonstrations would in every way be superior to and more entertaining than the so-called science shows that were given occasionally by itinerant magicians. However, his emphasis was definitely on education rather than on show; for he declared chemistry and the "doctrine of airs" to be so fundamental to a liberal education that little could be known or understood without them. This appeal to women is interesting inasmuch as the local Lyceum had concluded a few months before that women were mentally inferior to men. One of the greatest obstacles the Society faced in trying to teach chemistry to business men and housewives was the confusing and cumbersome nomenclature that was in common use. Terms such as "acid of ants" and "atmospherical mephit,is3' prevented any M i w w of the Times and Genera2 Adwrtiser, Wilmington, Delaware, Jan. 11,18W. ~SCEARF, THOMAS J., "History of Delaware, 1609-1888," L. J. Richards & Co., Philadelphis, 1888, pp. 492-3.
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Journal of Chemical Education
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