edited by ROGERR. FESTA
profilef in cherni/try Josiah Parsons Cooke of Harvard Sidney Rosen
School of Education, Box U-33 The University of Connecticut Storrs, CT 06268
He added to his classes in chemistry a course in Hebrew. 'Natural theology was something that interested Cooke all his life. - - - - In 1861. - - ~he eave a series of lectures at the Brooklvn Institute in New York which were published as ''~eligionand "Credentials of Science and Chemistw!' In 1888.. he nroduced . the Warrant of Faith." Cwke's argumrntri ei~entiallyfollowerl the Newtonian doctrine that the sheer s i m ~ l beauts e of'the scientific explanation of the physical world proves the existence of God. While Cooke performed significant research on atomic weights and published 41 papers during his lifetime, his greatest success was as an inspiring teacher of chemistry. In 1850,he began to give general chemistry lectures to the entire freshman class in the College, a tradition he carried on for 43 years. In these lectures, he eschewed technical details and talked about the inspiring aims, needs, and methods of chemistry. Cooke literally packed them in the aisles, something that had been done previously only by the zoological genius, Louis Agassiz. In 1871. Cooke cleverlv manaeed to break a lona-standina jealousy and arranged the merger of the chemistry department at H m a r d with that of the Lawrence School. Overcomina the prejudice of the Latinists and philosophers in the college against the intrusion of science courses into the curriculum was n task equivalent to moving the proverbial mountain; it was R task Josiah Cwke arcomplishrd. In lXHfi, President Eliot (who had been taught chemistry by Cooke) assigned to Cooke the nrenaration of a namnhlet listine the emeriments that students were requiredto have performed in h&h school if they expected admission credit in chemistry to Harvard. Cooke responded with his usual enthusiasm. In a short time, he produced a list of 60 experiments, most of them quantitative in nature. In the space of ten years, this list had alienated most hieh school chemistrv teachers. Nevertheless, "The ~ a m ~ h l e t as , " Cooke's list was facetiously called, gave rise to an increase in the publication of secondary school chemistry texts that emphasized both the quantitative and theoretical aspects of the science. By 1889, Joseph Cooke had become partially blind, and he suffered from palsy; nevertheless, he still directed the work of advanced students in chemistry, taught several chemistry courses, and continued faithfully the tradition of lectures on eeneral chemistrv he had heeun almost 40 vears before. In 7892 at the age of65, he journeyed to Alaska. He was awarded honorarv - Univer" deerees hv hoth Harvard and Camhridae sities, and he gave popular lectures on chemistry and religion in many cities. At the Lowell Institute (which was actually M.I.T.'s night college), Cooke lectured regularly from 1855 until 1893, a year before his death. During the last three years of his life, he served as President of the American Association of Arts and Sciences. The glowing memorial addresses puhlished in the Associate Proceedings praised Cooke as the father of chemistry teaching at Harvard and as a man whose intellectual curiosity and vitality could he extinguished only by death.3 ~
University of iilinais Urbana. iL 61801
In 1842, a 15-year-old Bostonian stumbled on a novel hobby-photography. Daguerre had invented the silver-plate process only three years earlier, the same year in which Talbot had invented a paper negative called the calotype. Only a few American amateurs attempted calotype photos, and only the ones made by this boy remain, preserved in Harvard University's Houghton Lihrary.' The boy was Josiah Parsons Cooke. I t was this early fascination with chemical processes that was to shape his life's work. Son of a Boston lawyer and grandson of a chaplain for General Washington's army, JosiahParsons Cooke was horn in 1827. His mother died when he was six. Inspired by Benjamin Silliman of Yale, Jwiah was allowed to have a laboratory in the Cooke domicile during his secondary school years. While Josiah showed great proficiency in science and mathematics, he had great difficulty mastering Latin and Greek. This deficiency almost ruined his chances of being accepted as a student by Harvard College. Nevertheless, he matriculated and was graduated in 1848. After a year in Europe, he returned to H m a r d as a tutor in mathematics (as did Charles Eliot). In May 1850, Cooke was appointed Instructor in Chemistry and Mineralogy. By the end of the same year, a t the tender age of 23, he was appointed Erving Professor. The reason for this promotion was that chemistry teaching a t Harvard had become virtually nonexistent. Professor Ehen Horsford, who had begun a laboratory course in the Lawrence Scientific School in 1848, soon tired of teaching and turned to research. Dr. John B. Wehster had initiated a chemistry course hoth in the College and in the Medical School. Not only was Wehster a had teacher, hut also there was only one set of chemical apparatus in the entire university. After the Medical School was moved from Cambridge to Boston, the whole business was shuttled hack and forth across the Charles River by wagon until 1858! Wehster's prize lecture was called "The Volcano." It consisted of "a large heap of sugar and potassium chlorate piled on a slab of soapstone. After he had lighted i t with a drop of sulfuric acid, he saved himself by dodging out of the room, and in a very few seconds all the members of his class found themselves obliged to jump out of the win do^."^ In 1850, Wehster was hanged for the murder of his colleague, Dr. Georgius Parkman. The job of reestablishing chemistry a t Harvard fell to Cooke. His first move was to return t o Europe, where he purchased apparatus and chemicals and also listened to lectures by J. B. Dumas. He returned enthusiastic about Justus von Liehig's lahoratory method of teaching chemistry. It was Liehig's technique that Cooke used to reawaken interest in chemical science a t Harvard. "Profiles in Chemistry" is a biographical feature, highlighting the contributionb of distinguished chemists in the context of their lives. The column is designed for curriculumenrichment, allowing the secondary school teacher to enhance the vitality of chemistry with the sense of scholarship and adventure shared by chemists throughout history.
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' Johnson. Chr'stopher S , Harvard Magarme. 83 131. 41 (1981)
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W W m w . R P SchoolScrence, 3 131. 140 (19021
Proc Amer Acad of Atis and Scsnces. 30, 5 13 (1895)
Volume 59 Number 6
June 1982
525
