course of study, as well as upon the methods used in teaching it, may be gleaned from the following statements made in the announcements from which the data in the above Table III are taken.d

An advertisement in the Raleigh (North Carolina) Register under date of March 23, 1827, setting forth the claims of the Oxford Female Academy reads:

Since the commencement of the session we have received a Chemical and a Philosophical Apparatus and now each recitation in Chemistry, Philosophy, and Astronomy, is accompanied with a Lecture and Experiments illustrating the principles of these sciences.20

From an advertisement setting forth the claims of the Warrenton Female Academy, we learn that

an extensive apparatus for Natural Philosophy and Chemistry were constantly used in teaching those branches which require their aid, affording facilities not possessed by any other Female Seminary in the United States."

According to the announcement of the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Massachusetts, that institution gave lectures and experiments on chemistry as applied to the useful arts.22 Continuing our study of these school announcements we learn that the Mount Hope Literary and Scientific Institution at Baltimore, Maryland, which admitted pupils of from four to sixteen years of age gave instruction in chemistry as applied to the arts, agriculture, and mineralogy;23 that in the New Haven Gymnasium, a school for the education of boys,

students not intending for college who have been sufficiently long in the course of education and have made the requisite attainments will be permitted to attend the course of lectures on chemistry, mineralogy and geology given by Professor Benjamin Silliman;24

and also that the Adams Female Academy at Derry, New Hampshire, was furnished with a good chemical laboratory.25

20 Raleigh Register, March 23, 1827. Quoted in Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission. North Carolina Schools and Academies 1790-1840. A Documentary History pp. 156-57.

21 The (Warrenton) Star, December 8, 1820. Quoted in Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission. North Carolina Schools and Academies 17001840. A Documentary History p. 447.

22 American Journal of Education 1:187.

23 Ibid. 3:620.

24 Prospectus of the New Haven Gymnasium; a School for the Education of Boys, American Journal of Science 13:385.

25 American Annals of Education 2:147.

School advertisements are probably unreliable. For this reason the importance of the following quotations should probably be discounted.

In the preparation of this study much effort has been made to gather material like that just given, but for no state except North Carolina is material available which makes possible anything approaching an exhaustive study. There is certainly no reason to believe that the academies of North Carolina gave more attention to teaching chemistry than the academies of the other states, but rather that the conditions there were typical of what would be found in the other states if studies comparable to those of the North Carolina Historical Commission were made.

Further evidence that chemistry was taught in the academies as widely as the available statistics indicate is gained from the preface of Amos Eaton'se Chemical Instructor, written in 1822, in which he apologizes for having prepared another textbook for use in the academies when there were already so many books of this kind available.26 And in an analysis of the course of study given by Chester Dewey, Principal of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Gymnasium, before the meeting of the American Lyceum, in 1833, he stated that the least instruction intended to be given in any of the common schools is reading, spelling, and writing. In the next higher grade of school, there is given a partial knowledge of English grammar, and of the elementary rules of arithmetic, with a very little geography. In the next grade all these branches are studied to much greater perfection and extent, and perhaps some history is read. In the highest of the common schools, and in some select schools, are taught rhetoric, some philosophy and chemistry, arithmetic fully, and some Latin and Greek. The academies and higher grammar and select schools pursue all these studies.27

From the same sources which have furnished us with evidence as to the extent to which chemistry was taught, we may also gain information concerning the methods used. The method advocated by those most prominent in the work of teaching chemistry was

26 Chemical Instructor p. 2.

Chester Dewey, Natural Science in Common Schools. American Annals of Education 5:304.

• Amos Eaton was senior professor at Rensselaer from 1824 to 1842. (W. S. Monroe's statement that he was president of Rensselaer, made in a biographical sketch of Amos Eaton in the Cyclopedia of Education, is in error.) During his stay at Rensselaer he devoted much attention to the training of science teachers. The prominence which he achieved as a teacher shortly after the publication of the Chemical Instructor makes the many ideas expressed here concerning equipment, content, and method for the work of teaching chemistry especially significant. See below, p. 47 ff.

that of giving lectures accompanied by experimental demonstrations. One school announcement states that each recitation in chemistry is accompanied by a lecture and experiments illustrating the principles.28 Another states that

an extensive apparatus for Natural Philosophy and Chemistry were constantly used in teaching those branches."

Another, according to its announcement, gave lectures and experiments on chemistry.30 In another

a neat and well selected apparatus together with a handsome cabinet of minerals facilitated the task of instruction in the several studies of Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, and Mineralogy."

Again,

the Lectures on Chemistry were illustrated by the best apparatus the incipient state of the institution will afford.32

It is difficult to determine just how much use was made of the laboratory by the pupils, but probably not very much. Amos Eaton advocated that the pupils be required to handle the apparatus in order that they might better understand the experiments afterwards to be performed by the instructor.33 Laboratory equipment was difficult to procure. Amos Eaton, in his book just referred to, gave directions for making or borrowing from a druggist most of the apparatus required for the experiments outlined in his text. Larger pieces of apparatus when desired were ordered from England. The problem of equipment was certainly one which contributed in no small degree to the difficulties which stood in the way of efficient instruction.

The existence of elementary textbooks was unquestionably essential to the promotion of instruction in chemistry in the academies. This was especially true since there was, during this period of pioneering, a shortage of qualified chemistry teachers.

A

28 Raleigh Register, March 23, 1827. Quoted in Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission. North Carolina Schools and Academies 1790-1840. Documentary History pp. 156-57.

The (Warrenton) Star, December 8, 1820. Quoted in Pulications of the North Carolina Historical Commission. North Carolina Schools and Academies 1790

31 Raleigh Register, December 16, 1830. Quoted in Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission. North Carolina Schools and Academies 1790-1840. A

It is probably more than a coincidence that three of the elementary textbooks listed below were written in 1822. In Table III are listed eleven academies which began giving instruction in chemistry not later than the period between 1822 and 1826. These two facts point to the conclusion that the decade of 1820 to 1830 witnessed a rapid growth in the extension of chemistry as a secondary-school subject.

An attempt to determine the number of textbooks in use during a given period is just as impossible as to determine how many schools included chemistry in their curricula. There are listed below eight elementary texts in chemistry which appeared between 1822 and 1833. In addition to these there were twenty or more other chemistries which had been written for use in the colleges. It is highly probable that a considerable number of these. college texts were also used in the academies.

Monroe, discussing the use of textbooks in science in the United States, says that "by 1832 there were 39 geographies, II astronomies, 6 botanies, 5 chemistries, and 6 natural philosophies. Most of these were designed for use in the academies."34 It is difficult to understand why Monroe would make such a definite statement as this when it is clearly impossible to state the exact number of books that were in use during this period. We can say that there were at least as many in use as we can find record of, but we can have no assurance that we have record of all. Again, the error in this statement is evident, for we have listed below the names of & books written or revised in America and in use in American secondary schools, 7 of which appeared previous to 1832.

The list of books here given includes only those which were written specifically for use in the secondary schools.

This

The Chemical Instructor,35 written in 1822 by Amos Eaton, was "intended for academies and the popular classroom." book in comparison with those used in the colleges was quite brief and elementary.

34 Paul Monroe, A Brief Course in the History of Education p. 365.

35 Chemical Instructor p. 3.

This statement of Professor Monroe typifies the lack of accurate information concerning this period of American education.

A copy is in the library of the University of Minnesota.

An Introduction to Chemistry, with practical questions, designed by John R. Cotting for beginners in the science, was written in 1822.36

A Grammar of Chemistry, "adapted to the use of schools and private students, by familiar illustrations and easy experiments," was written in 1822 by Dr. J. L. Comstock.37

The Juvenile Philosopher; or Youth's Manual of Philosophy in Four Parts; I, Natural Philosophy; II, Astronomy; III, Chemistry; IV, Physiology, was written in 1826, for the use of schools and juvenile readers.38

The Elements of Chemistry for the use of schools and academies (1827) by Fyfe of Edinburgh; with additions and alterations by John W. Webster of Harvard University, was especially recommended for use in the academies by the editor of The American Journal of Education.3

39

Conversations on Chemistry, in which the elements of that science are familiarly explained by Mrs. Bryant, was edited in America by J. L. Comstock, 1830.i

New Conversations on Chemistry, by T. P. Jones, was written in 1831.40

Elements of Chemistry, with practical exercises for use of schools, by Francis J. Grund, was written in 1833.41

In addition to these eight, nineteen other texts on chemistry were listed in the advertising pages of Robert Hare's Compendium of the Course of Chemical Instruction in the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, published by Joseph G. Auner, Philadelphia, 1836. This makes a total of twenty-seven chemistry texts which were offered for sale in the United States as early as 1836. The fact that the eight books listed above, and probably others, were prepared primarily for use in the academies

36 Book review. American Journal of Science 5:404.

41 Book review. American Journal of Science 25:426. Revised also in American Annals of Education 3:600.

h A second edition of this book was published in 1825. A copy is in the library of the University of Minnesota. It is reviewed in the American Journal of Education 1:316.

1 A copy

edition."

was available to the writer. This 1830 publication was a "twelfth

A copy is in the library of the University of Minnesota.