An introductory lecture on the advantages and pleasures of the study of chemistry : delivered in the chemical laboratory of Transylvania University on the 11th Nov. 1831, and published at the request of the class / by Lunsford P. Yandell.

  • Yandell, Lunsford P. (Lunsford Pitts), 1805-1878.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introductory lecture on the advantages and pleasures of the study of chemistry : delivered in the chemical laboratory of Transylvania University on the 11th Nov. 1831, and published at the request of the class / by Lunsford P. Yandell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    guaranty in his success as a teacher elsewhere, that he will not fail within these walls. To these remark? I shall only add, that I do not feel at liber- ty to doubt the disposition on your part, to extend tome, in all cases, that degree of liberal indulgence which the enlightened and ingenuous never withhold. And now permit me to proceed to the subject of my address. My duty, as you are aware, in the chair which 1 have the honor to occupy, is to give instruction in Chemistry; and I have con- cluded that I could not do better on the present occasion, than to present you with a brief view of the importance of that sci- ence, accompanied by a few of those beautiful, curious, and interesting facts which have riveted the attention, and even ex- cited the wonder of the civilized world. That Chemistry, as a branch of scientific and collegiate ed- ucation, has been greatly undervalued, not to say, seriously neg- lected, in the Western country, is a fact which, it is believed, will not be called in question. It would constitute a subject of curious inquiry how many thorough chemists we should be able to find in all our colleges and universities—averaging some three or four for each state, in all the older states of the west. How many who could analyze wilh accuracy, a medicinal spring, or detect the composition of a new mineral? Who, after examin- tion, could pronounce positively, in a court of justice, upon the existence of a suspected poison? who, if required, could pre- pare for a physician prussic acid, or caustic potash, or sulphate of quinine? or who could determine the proportion of alloy in a counterfeit coin as was done by Archimedes for Hiero, more than two thousand years ago? But, that Chemistry is a science, most important in its bear- ing, and of wide and varied relations, not only presenting to the mind of the student the most striking facts, and unfolding some of the most interesting laws of nature, but constituting for the professional man a field of knowledge as indispensable, as for the general scholar it is replete with attractions, is a truth, universally received in other countries, and which will not long be questioned in ours. To be satisfied that medicine rests upon it, as a chief corner stone, let me entreat you to cast your eyes over the Materia Medica, and count the remedies which the physician has not received at the hands of the Chemist. Be- ginning with Raymond Lulty, who discovered nitiic acid in the 13th century, or with Basil Valentine, who, about the close of the 15th, introduced into practice, mercury, antimony and sul- phuric acid, and coming down to our own times, you will find