SILLIMAN, BENJAMIN American chemist and geologist, was born on August 8, 1779, at Trumbull (then called North Stratford), Connecticut. Entering Yale college in 1792, he graduated in 1796, became tutor in 1799 and in 1802 was appointed professor of chemistry and mineralogy, a position which he retained till 1853, when by his own desire he retired as professor emeritus. Not only was he a popular and successful teacher of chemistry, mineralogy and geology in the college for half a century, but he also did much to improve and extend its educational re sources, especially in regard to its mineralogical collections, the Trumbull Gallery of Pictures, the Medical Institution and the Sheffield Scientific School. Outside Yale he was well known as one of the few men who could hold the attention of a popular audi ence with a scientific lecture, and on account of his clear and in teresting style, as well as of the unwonted splendour of his illustra tive experiments, his services were in great request not only in the northern and eastern states but also in those of the south. His original investigations were neither numerous nor important, and his name is best known to scientific men as the founder, and from 1818 to 1838 the sole editor, of the American Journal of Science and Arts—often called Silliman's Journal,—one of the foremost American scientific serials. In 1810 he published A Journal of Travels in England, Holland and Scotland, in which he described a visit to Europe undertaken in 18o5 in preparation for the duties of his chair. He paid a second visit in 1851, of which he also issued an account, and among his other publications were Elements of Chemistry (1830), and editions of W. Henry's Chemistry with notes (1808), and of R. Bakewell's Geology (1827). He died at New Haven on November 24, His son, BENJAMIN SILLIMAN (1816-1885), chemist and min eralogist, was born at New Haven on December 4, 1816. After graduating at Yale in 1837 he became assistant to his father, and in 1847 was appointed professor in the school of applied chemistry, which was largely due to his efforts and formed the nucleus of the subsequent Sheffield Scientific School. In 1849 he was appointed
professor of medical chemistry and toxicology in the Medical col lege at Louisville, Kentucky, but relinquished that office in to succeed his father in the chair of chemistry at Yale. The duties of this professorship, so far as they related to the Academic col lege, he gave up in 1870, but he retained his connection with the Medical college till his death, which happened at New Haven on January 14, 1885. Much of his time, especially during the last 20 years of his life, was absorbed in making examinations of mines and preparing expert reports on technical processes of chemical manufacture ; but he was also able to do a certain amount of orig inal work, publishing papers on the chemistry of various minerals, on meteorites, on photography with the electric arc, the illuminat ing powers of gas, etc. A course of lectures given by him on agri cultural chemistry in the winter of 1845-46 at New Orleans is believed to have been the first of its kind in the United States. In :846 he published First Principles of Chemistry and in 1858 First Principles of Physics or Natural Philosophy, both of which had a large circulation. In 1853 he edited a large quarto illustrated vol ume, The World of Science, Art and Industry, which was followed in 1854 by The Progress of Science and Mechanism. In 1874, when the iooth anniversary of Priestley's preparation of oxygen was celebrated as the "Centennial of Chemistry" at Northumber land, Pa., where Priestley died, he delivered an historical address on "American Contributions to Chemistry," which contains a full list, with their works, of American chemists up to that date. From 1838 to 1845 he was associated with his father in the editorship of the American Journal of Science, and from 1845 to the end of his life his name appeared on the title page as one of the editors in chief.