SOUTH CAROLINA' J. HAMPTON HOCH Medical College of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina
E a n r , ~settlers in American colonies rarried out what we call chemical operations in produring such things as wood tar, potashes, bricks, glass, mine, salt, leather, and quicklime. The establishment of tanneries, breweries, brick kilns, fulling mills, distilleries, etc., in the northern colonies prior to the set,tlemcnt of South Carolina marked t.he earliest beginnings of ohemiral industry in America. In addition to necessary items like those mentioned, the processing of agricultural rrops for export was another phase of chemiral industry which had counterparts in all the colonies. Indigo production, for example, achieved local prominence. Endeavors of this sort were encouraged by persons interested in developing South Carolina. As early as 1707 the manufacture of pot,ash and saltpeter was encouraged in this province, and in 1733 Swiss settlers at Purrysburgh produced silk. This paper will not discuss these topics, interesting though they are, but rather will deal with persons and chemistry of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Before the first chair to i ~ ~ d u drhemistry e was established a t South Carolina College in 1811, there were about 20 American colleges i n which this subject was taught. In the first American medical schools chemistry was recognized as a branch of the curriculum from the beginning, hut it was taught, at first, in connection with pharmacy and materia medica and occasionally, in small faculties, along with anatomy and surgery. Physicians were the standard-bearers of chemistry in America. Two-thirds of the early teachers of chemistry (before 1811), from Maine to Georgia, had received medical training, and nearly two-thirds of these had been students of Joseph Black or his successor Thomas Hope,, a t Edinburgh. Most of the men teaching chemistry and associated subjects in American colleges were very capable and versatile individuals of broad culture. Only a few of these teachers can, however, he considered to have contributed to the advancement of chemistry through individual investigation and researrh. Some of them achieved fame in other fields, such as general science, anatomy, surgery, minewlogy, and medical jurisprudence. Laboratory facilities for experimental chemistry were very meager or &existent; apparatus wR,s 1 Presented before the Rahert Wilson Medical History Club, Charlrston. South Carolina. March 4, 1054.
generally quite crude and limited in amount and variety. In those colleges where an attempt was made to teach chemistry it was by the lecture system, sometimes sparsely, and but rarely fully supplemented by demonstration experiments and sample specimens. Contemporaries have desrribed t,hese "bench" experiments as "mtertainirrg," "neat," or "brilliant." But the students had no part in t,he experiments other than as witnesses. The first, laboratory work for students was introduced by Dr. Maclean at thc College of New Jersey in the nineteenth rent,ury (ca. 1804). This particular situat,ion was not retrograde here in America. The early chemical lahoratories in European colleges and universities m r e intended primarily for the preparative and research work of the professor in rharge. In only a few inst,ances up. to 1810 were chemical laboratories abroad opened for regular instruntion of undergraduate student^.^ The textbooks and manuals used by American teachers of chemistry before 1811 mere mostly reprints of European works. Sometimes these were augmented by the American e d i t ~ r .Until ~ the nineteenth century there ux.ere few works writt.en for ~tudeiltsby American authors; among these few wcre Rush's "Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Chemistry" (Philadelphia, 1770; editions up to 1783), Mitrhill's "Synopsi~of Chemical Nomenclature and Arrangement" (Kew York, 1794), Woodhouse's "Young Chemist's Pocket Companion" (Philadelphia, 1797), and .Jacob's "The Student's Chemical Pocket Companion" (Philadelphia, 1802). Lomonsow st St. Petershurg (li48), J. G. Gmelin, Jr., a t Tiihingen (1753), Gadolin a t Aha (ca. 17003, Lampadius a t Freihurg (1706), and Stromeyer a t GBttingen (1806) admitted undergraduates to regular laboratory work. Thomas Thomson a t Edinburgh and later (1817) a t Glasgow also made laboratory work for his students a part of the regular course. The private laboratories of pharmacist-chemiats like Vauquelin (Paris) and the student laboratories of pharmacy teachers lihe those oi Trommsdorff (Erfurt) and Wiegleh (1.angensalza) are in a. different category. 3 Before the day of copyrights the preps prepared many reprints of foreign books. American editions sometimes appeared only a fen weeks after their publication in Great Britain. Boerhrtave, Mncquer, Mitrggraf were authors tmommended and available in B r i t i ~ hand French editions hefore the Revolution. By 1800 Englifih trmdations of treatises by Scheele snd Fourcroy and an American edition of Lavoisicr'~"Elements of Chemistry" had aooeared. The British works bv B i s h o ~Watson. Priestlev. and hiibholson, also issued prior to 1800, we& not favdred in this country BS teaching texts. In the first decade of the nineteenth century British and American editions of texthooks by Chaptd, Parkinson, Aecum, Henry, Black, Thomson, Parken, and Mrs. Marcet heeame popular.
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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
Dr. James Hutchinson, in 1792-93, was the first American to teach only chemistry. He died in the yellow-fever epidemic which swept Philadelphia in 1793. The date of 1795, when Dr. James Woodhouse took on the duties of the chair of chemistry a t the University of Pennsylvania, is probably more significant as the time when the first professorship devoted solely to chemistry was established a t an American institution of full cwllegiate grade.' To come now to the local scene: The first proponent of chemistry to he introduced is Dr. Henry Moyes (1752-1807), a hlind Scotchman who had studied at, Edinburgh and was inspired by Joseph Black. He lectured on chemistry in Great Britain, from 1779-83, and then came to Americafor a lecture tour. In Boston, Providence. New York. and Philadelnhia he at,t,racted large audiences; his la& series of lectures, in Philadelphia, dealt with the philosophy of chemistry and natural history. Sailing for Charleston, S. C., in Mcvrh, 1786, he was well received and wrote to Dr. Benjr.min Rush just before sailing back to London. Thrsr are his words? I will give some account of my success in Charleston. On the 16th of March we sailed from Philadelphia, & after a. most tremendous passage we arrivcd here on the 10th of April. A large packet of Introductory Letters procured me a polite reception, & altho' in the language- of thc Town every body is a t present enjoying the Country Air, ,yet my Lecture Room is much frequented, & often displays around Three Hundred. . . A few- days ago the Thermometer rose to 85 degrees, & this morning we found ourselves very comfortably situated by a good Coal fire. It is these and similar changes in the Atmosphere that destroy the health of the Southern States. . . t o Embark tomorrow morning.. . Charleston, Msy 24.
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We find that Dr: M~yes'series of 12 lectures, held in the State House, dealt, with subjects such as "Air, fire, light, electricity, vegetables, &c. &c." "A variety of experiments" were used to illustrate "the laws which regulate the material universe." Tickets for gentlemen mere sold for one guinca; and half a guinea for ladies.B 'Others have designated Benjamin Rush or John Maeleen as the first professor of chemistry alone. However, pharmacy instruction was included in the scope, although not in the title of Rush's chair a t Philadelphia until 1789; then C a ~ p a rWistar taught both chemistry and the institutes of medicine. When the University of Pennsylvania was reorganized in 1791, James Hutohinson taught chemistry and pharmacy until 1792, and chemistry alone only in 1792-93 when pharmacy was transferred to the chair of materia medica, held by 5. P. Griffitts. John Maclean a t the College of N e r Jersey in 1795 occupied the chair of chemistry and natural history, and two years later also took over the teaching of mathematics and natural philosophy. 6 A ~ E. V., ~ A N D~ C. K. ~ DEISCHER, ~ ~ "Dr. ~ Henry ~ Moyes, Scotch chemiat: His visit to America, 1785-1786,'' J. CHEM.EDUC., 24, 169 (1047). Dr. Moyes had come from London to New England before 1785. Nsrned professor of natural philosophy and astronomy at Columbia Collcgc in 1784, "his lectures were so instructive and entertaining that men fought to gain admission t o the auditorium and women faintod n t the door." (LANC~TAFF, J. B., "Doctol. Bard of Hyde Park," New York, 1942, pp. 154, 310.) Charleston Mowing Post a d Daily Aduerliser, April 18, 1786.
The title of his third lecture "On the history and properties of factitious gasses, namely fixable air, inflammable air, nitrous air, phlogisticated air and dephlogisticated air"' was more strictly chemical than the others. These gases are now known as carbon dioxide, hydrogen, nitric oxide, nitrogen, and oxygen. The prevailing custom of that day was to incorporate topics of chemistry into natural philosophy or physics; accordingly, subjects like latent heat,8 heat transmission, evapor&ion, light,g phosphdrescence, the electrical flnid,1° earthquake^,^' and volcanoes were included in the lecture series. "The natural history of the human mind, or the progress of man from rudeness to refinement" was the topic of a special "lecture for the benefit of the poor in the city of Charleston."12 Dr. Moyes' humanitarianism led him to publish in the local newspaper13 "instructions for recovering persons who may meet vith accidents.. .to preveut being huried alive." Both Dr. Moyes and Dr. Rush of Philadelphia were much interested in disseminating these instructions to the American public. Following this itinerant lecturer there were sporadic attempts a t instruction in chemistry in Charleston in the 1790's and the first part of 1800. Charles Fraser in his "Reminiscences" mentions at,temptsa t public lecturing by Doctors Chichester, Dickson, Prioleau, and Simons, and says, "But in no instance were those laudable undertakings properly encwraged."'4 Dr. John Chichester was an Englishman who, for a short time, lectured on chemistry a t the College of Charle~ton.'~ A notice in the newspaperl%f November 22, 1793 says, "Dr. Chichester will begin a course of lectures in chymistry . . .on Monday the 7th of January next in the philosophical school.. . ." These lectures were open to the public, for a fee. In this third year of its existence the local school u7as not an institution of full collegiate rank.17 Dr. Chichester had joined the Medical Societv of
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