Thomas Jefferson (See pages 574 and 575)
Thomas Jefferson's Relation to Chemistry C. A. BROWNE Bureau of Agricultural and Industrial Chemistry, U. S. Deportment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.
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N THIS year of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson, when so much has been published about his diversified interests in agriculture, botany, ethnology, geography, paleontology, and other sciences, nothing appears to have been written about the interests in chemistry of the greatest patron of science among our country's Presidents. Jefferson's high opinion of chemistry is indicated by the large number of books upon this science in his private library which contained works by Chaptal, Duhamel, Fourcroy, Hales, Ingen-Housz, Lavoisier, Parmentier, Rumford, Scheele, Wallerius, Watson, and other prominent chemists, with some of whom he was personally acquainted. It was his great privilege, during the years 1784-89, while Minister to France, to witness the intense interest in chemistry of that country. Writing from Paris in July, 1788, to his friend Rev. James Madison of William and Mary College, Jefferson relates: "Speaking one day with Monsieur de Bufion, on the present ardor of chemical inquiry, he affected t o consider chemistry but as cookery, and t o place the toils of the laboratory on a footing with those of the kitchen. I thmk it, on the contrary, among the most useful of sciences and big with future discoveries for the utility and safety of the human race."
Jefferson's interest in chemistry was chiefly upon the practical side. This utilitarian outlook is well indicated in a letter written in August, 1805, to Dr. Thomas Ewell which is included in the preface of the latter's "Plain Discourses on the Laws or Properties of Matter" (New York, 1806) : "Of the importance of turning a knowledge of chemistry to household purposes. I have been long satisfied. The common herd of philosophers seem t o write only for one another. The chemists have 6lled volumes on the composition of a thousand substances of no sort of importance to the purposes of life; while the arts of making bread, butter, cheese, vinegar, soap, beer, cider, &c. remain unexplained. Chaptal has lately given the chemistry of wine making; the late Dr. Pennington did the same as t o bread, and promised t o pursue the line of rendering his knowledge useful t o common life; but death deprived us of his labors. Good treatises on these subjects should receive general approbation."
Similarly in July, 1812, in a letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, acknowledging the receipt of a copy of his "Introductory Lecture to a Course of Chemistry" Jefferson wrote: "You know the just esteem which attached itself t o Dr. Franklin's science, because he always endeavored t o direct it t o something useful in private life. The chemists have not been attentive enough t o this. I have wished to see their science applied t o domestic objects, t o malting, for instance, brewing, making cider,
>. t o fermentation and distillation generally, to the making of bread, butter, cheese, soap, to the incubation of eggs, etc. And I am happy t o observe some of these titles in the syllabus of your kcture. I hope you will make the chemistry of these subjects intelligible t o our good house-wives."
To the readers of THISJOURNAL the attitude of Jefferson toward the position of chemistry in university education will be of special interest. As early as January, 1800, Jeffersonrequested the eminent English chemist, Dr. Joseph Priestley, a close personal friend, to submit suggestions about courses of study for the new university which he had long been planning to create a t Charlottesville. In the following May, Priestley submitted to Jefferson, in response to his request, his "Hints concerning public education," in which he outlines a curriculum of nine subjects. "Chemistry, including the theory of agriculture" is mentioned by Priestley as one of the studies that should be given in a course of liberal education. A comparison of Priestley's outline (which is published on pages 117-22 of Edgar F. Smith's "Priestley in America") with the curriculum of studies introduced by Jefferson in the University of Virginia 25 years later shows many points of agreement. In a final draft of courses in science for this institution, Jefferson even went beyond Priestley and would give chemistry a predominant part. This is indicated in his letter of May 2, 1826 (only two nionths before his death), to Dr. John P. Emmett, Professor of Natural History a t the newly established university, in which he suggested that Emmett give for the year's course one dozen lectures each to botany, zoology, mineralogy, and geology and eight dozen to chemistry. He then continued: "You will say that two-thirds of a year, or any better estimated partition of it, can give but an inadequate knowledge of the whole science of Chemistry. But consider that we do not expect our schools t o turn out their alumni already enthroned on the pinnacles of their respective sciences; but only so far advanced in each as t o he able t o pursue them by themselves, and t o become Newtons and Laplaces by energies and perseverances t o he continued through Life."
Jefferson's long-forgotten "Report on the methods for obtaining fresh water from salt" gives an account of the experiments which he performed in March, 1791, while Secretary of State, in company with Rittenhouse, President of the American Philosophical Society; Wistar, Professor of Chemistry in the College of Philadelphia; and Hutchinson, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania. The report is a classic for i t is the first document of a chemical nature to be published by the United States Government.
