THE DARTMOUTH SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION, ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY

The following article is the major portion of a paper recently read before the Scientific Association. The paper will be published in full by the Association.—Editor.

This Association was organized forty-six years ago, on February 12, 1870. It grew out of a small club, then recently formed, composed of teachers in the College who had arranged among themselves a method of exchange of Scientific periodicals. This arrangement was so satisfactory that it very soon assumed the name of the "Dartmouth Association for Scientific Periodicals."

Literary and theological discussions were prevalent in those days; it was reported that at a meeting of members of the Faculty, many of whom were or had been members of the Northern Academy, the question of the Creation as recorded in Genesis was discussed at length; it is said that they reached the conclusion and formally voted that the six days of creation corresponded in length of time to our days. This so astonished the scientific men who were studying Natural History and Geology and were reading Hugh Miller and Charles Darwin that it doubtless had much to do with the founding of this Scientific Association. It must be borne in mind that at that time, Darwin's "Origin of Species" had been in print only a few years, and that the theory of Evolution had just begun to attract seriously the attention of Theologians.

The seven members of the periodical club became the charter members, so-called, of this Association. They were: Charles H. Hitchcock, Hall Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, Dartmouth College; Charles A. Young, Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and Professor of Astronomy, Dartmouth College; Thomas R. Crosby, Professor of Animal and Vegetable Physiology, Agricultural College; Lycortas B. Hall, Professor of Chemistry and Natural History, Chandler School; Ezekiel W. Dimond, Professor of General and Ap plied Chemistry, Agricultural College; Elihu T. Quimby, Professor of Mathematics and Civil Engineering, Dartmouth College; Charles F. Emerson, Tutor in Mathematics, Dartmouth College.

Prof. T. R. Crosby was elected the first President, and Prof. L. B. Hall, Secretary and Treasurer.

Professor Hitchcock and Professor Crosby were elected Executive Committee.

After a discussion of the proposition and an invitation to meet at the study of Professor Hitchcock on February 22 to hear the first paper, the Association adjourned.

At the meeting on February 22, Professor Hitchcock read the first paper on the "Formation of Mountains," of which a full abstract of two pages is given in the records. At this meeting, C. F. Emerson was added to the Executive Committee and this Committee was asked to pre" re a Constitution and By-Laws for Association. A simple Constitution consisting of eight articles, and By-Laws of seven articles, was reported at the following meeting, discussed and laid on the table for consideration over one meeting. This Constitution, as reported, was adopted at the following meeting on March 22, and the seven original members were assigned to definite fields for papers and reports, as follows:

Professor Hitchcock to Geology and Mineralogy; Professor Crosby to Zoology and Comparative Anatomy; Professor Hall to Botany and Microscopy; Professor Dimond to Chemistry; Professor Young to Natural Philosophy and Astronomy; Professor Quimby to Mathematics and Engineering; Mr. Emerson to Geography and Statistics; and the Association was fairly started on its eventful history.

The meetings of the Association were generally held, by invitation, at the. houses of the members, during the first few years. Between 1875 and 1893, the Association found a home in the Thayer Rooms in Thornton Hall, first floor, southeast corner. When in 1893 the Agricultural College moved to Durham and the Thayer School took possession of their building on South Park Street, giving up the Thornton Hall rooms, the Association divided its housing between Dartmouth Hall, Butterfield Museum and Tuck Hall, until in 1908, it found its present pleasant home in Wilder Hall. The records show the omission of very few meetings, and then only for good and sufficient reasons, like the conflict with important public meetings. The Association presents also a remarkable record of attendance varying from seven to thirty-five members beside visitors, numbering as many as sixty, or more.

The records of the Association contain so many references to the Northern Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the various attempts to make a vital connection with it, and thus save it from final extinction, that I [missing text] constrained to give the following [missing text] ne history of the Academy, and the connection which this Association had with it.

The Northern Academy of Arts and Sciences was organized in June, 1841, here in Hanover, by members of the Faculty of Dartmouth College, but with the co-operation of prominent men in the neighboring towns. At the first meeting twenty-one were present, including eight from out of town; a Constitution was adopted and officers chosen, and forty-five persons, including seventeen non-residents, were enrolled as organic members; at this meeting 137 others were elected to membership and at subsequent meetings, within four years, as many more, including the most distinguished men in Science and Literature in New England, New York and Pennsylvania.

The object of the Academy as stated in its Constitution was "the cultivation of the Arts and Sciences, with a view to the happiness of mankind." It was quite ambitious at the start and proposed "the establishment of a library and a museum, the prosecution of literary and scientific researches, and the publication of their results in an annual or quarterly periodical." An annual report was printed at the end of each of the first two years, and during these years a good beginning was made towards an important historical library, with the acquisition of several hundred bound volumes, more than 4000 pamphlets, a large number of files of newspapers and many valuable and rare manuscripts ; lack of a good printing press in the vicinity, and also of funds, prevented the publishing of the contemplated periodical.

Rev. Dr. Wm. Cogswell, (Dartmouth College, 1811), then Professor of History and National Education in Dartmouth, was the originator and very life of the Academy; but unfortunately for the Academy he was called to the Presidency of the Gilmanton Theological Seminary in 1844, and the Academy failed to live up to the standard of his inspiring example. Dr. Cogswell, with his characteristic enthusiasm, hoped that the Academy might take rank with the great literary, scientific and historical societies of the world; in his first annual report, he gives a brief account of the establishment and growth of the learned Societies- in France, Germany, and England; he then goes more into detail in enumerating and describing the Literary and Scientific Associations in this country, and he takes them up in chronological order giving, as he claims, the first statistical account of them ever published; he devotes ten pages in his report to the description of these American Associations.

The scheme of Dr. Cogswell may seem even to us as too ambitious and visionary, but had he remained in Hanover until his death in 1850, and devoted the strength and energy which he spent upon the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, to the building up of the Academy, it might have had vitality enough to hold over until the Scientific Association came along to impart new life and vigor, and thus have prevented its final dissolution.

The organization was kept alive by its annual meeting and election of officers at Commencement time until 1850, and by occasional meetings with attempts to revive an interest in the organization as late as 1866, by gentlemen interested especially in literature and theology. Many meetings were held between 1850 and 1866 at private houses in attempts to revive the Academy; essays on literary and popular subjects were read and discussed freely, but of no avail in re-establishing the Society on a working basis. This brings us very near the time of the organization of this Scientific Association and, in brief, explains why so many references are made in the records' of the latter to a possible revival of the former, or at least to a union of the two societies.

Various committees worked upon a plan of union but little was accomplished until June, 1874, when a proposition was agreed upon which resulted in co-operation of the two societies, the Scientific Association becoming a section of the Northern Academy, but reserving control of its own affairs.

After this agreement had been put in operation the literary section of the Academy held meetings with considerable regularity until in 1877 there was formed an association similar to the Scientific Association entitled the "Dartmouth Literary and Philosophical Association." This branch of the Northern Academy maintained fairly regular monthly meetings until 1902. Attempts were made during this time to bring closer cooperation between the sections, but, in spite of all, the union was not sufficiently strong to give vitality enough to the Northern Academy to insure its continued life, and in October, 1903, it was formally and legally disbanded and the property turned over to the College. This disposition and legal burial of the Northern Academy of Arts and Sciences did not make even a ripple on the smooth and regular on-going proceedings of the Scientific Association, and the records do not show a single reference to the event.

The writer cannot help feeling that if the efforts of the Scientific Association had been generously seconded by the members of the Literary Section, the Northern Academy of Arts and Sciences would today be a live and vigorous Society and a decided asset to the College.

To better appreciate the purpose, the spirit, and the courage of the founders of this Association, it may be well to give in a few words the condition of the College at the time of its organization. The College proper, or Academical Department, as it was called, had been in existence more than one hundred years; it possessed six buildings, Dartmouth, Thornton, Went-worth, Reed, the Observatory, and Bissell Hall, the latter built in 1867. The faculty consisted of seven professors, four instructors, and three tutors in residence, with four non-resident lecfrrers, and with three hundred and five students enrolled. The salary of a tutor was $600, and that of the professors just raised from $1500 to $2000. The Medical College, founded in 1798, owned one building, had two professors and one lecturer in residence and five non-resident lecturers, with forty-four students enrolled. The Chandler School of Science and the Arts, founded in 1851, possessed one building and had three professors and one tutor, with seventy-nine students enrolled. The Agricultural Department, established in 1868 with no buildings, had two professors and nine students enrolled; this gives a total faculty of twenty-six teachers, resident and non-resident, with four hundred and thirty-five students, all told.

There were no laboratories in town and very little apparatus of any kind, and the College was hard pressed for funds to meet its necessary running expenses.

The cost to the founders of the Association for the first two years was twenty-five dollars apiece, but with increasing numbers the expense per man grew less, so that the average cost including the periodicals varied from three to five dollars per year as long as scientific periodicals were taken.

The records of the Association are full of reports of its members in the different fields of Science, some quite brief, others very exhaustive, but covering almost every subject of interest. Time will allow reference only to a few of the more important and interesting reports. The first year was a very busy one as each member, except Professor Dimond, read a paper, and two members presented two lengthy papers in the first five months; as mentioned above Professor Hitchcock gave the first paper, Professor Quimby the second, and Professor Young the third, on the Spectroscope, which attracted much attention as it opened up to the Association a view of his prospective work in Science; he exhibited the various kinds of spectra by means of a large Ruhmkorff coil just' purchased by the College, capable of giving a spark twenty-two inches long.

At the meeting on March 9th, 1870, Professor Hitchcock asked Mr. J. H. Huntington, his assistant in the State Geological Survey, who had spent a part of the winter on the summit of Moosilauke to give an account of his observations there, being the first made upon the New England Mountains in winter. Mr. Hitchcock stated that he had great difficulty in procuring assistants on account of popular prejudice.

"Name defined as meaning 'bare place'; top comparatively level with an area of 40 to 50 acres; wind usually not less than seven miles per hour and once as high as ninety-seven and one-half miles. Storms commonly from east or S.-E. First storm broke all the glass in windows, 7" x 9" panes, by pressure. Mean temperature for January 14.42°, for February 6.48°. Little change during the day. Frost work beautiful, snow always moist, adhering to everything, building out towards the wind like stalactites."

This successful attempt at winter mountain observation led doubtless to the Government's willingness to assist in a similar effort later, on Mt. Washington.

Under date of September 28, 1870, I find the following record: "Professor Young exhibited some photographs of the protuberances from the sun, and the arrangement by which they were taken. These were probably the first photographs of the kind ever exhibited. Professor Young was congratulated upon being the originator of a new method of scientific research, and the success attending his efforts." Professor Young also showed some drawings of solar clouds, the outlines of which he had traced through the help of the new spectroscope; he also reported that he had been able to observe the reversal of lines not yet reported by other observers, "all the hydrogen lines, both the sodium lines, and all four b. lines."

Just before the adjournment of that meeting the president received and read the following telegram from Professor Hitchcock: "No longer call New Hampshire azoic, Silurian fossils just discovered." This announcement and its subsequent publication created quite a stir in the scientific world and Professor Hitchcock's discovery and the inferences drawn therefrom were not fully accepted for many years; the records of May, 1882, include a letter, directed to the secretary, received from Professor Hitchcock, then in Virginia, containing the following: "about ten years since I telegraphed to the President of the Association, as follows: 'No longer call New Hampshire azoic, Silurian fossils discovered today'. I thought then the first intimation of an important discovery should be given to our Association, and therefore make known to you, for their information, a fact which will accomplish more for the progress of correct views about New Hampshire and Vermont geology than the discovery of the ancient coral reef at Littleton — it is this, — After many months spent in the field, and after a dozen papers have been printed upholding doctrines adverse to my views, Professor Dana now admits that he has been wrong and that I have been right in respect to the age of the Green Mountains The following extracts from his letters speak for themselves. April 11: 'I came to the conclusion that part of the quartzite and probably the larger part, is certainly Potsdam' .... 'In a paper written two months since, not yet published, I speak of myself as holding your view on the question.' April 20: 'lt is a great pleasure to me that we now understand one another. As to the age of the quartzite, we are one by my reaching your earlier conclusion .... and it will be my pleasure, in the future, to give you full credit for priority'."

Honors were coming fast to Professors Young and Hitchcock at this time. In the summer of the previous year, Professor Young was sent to Burlington, Iowa, by the United States Government to observe a solar eclipse. Pinned to the records of January 18, 1871, is an eight-page letter from him written to the Association, dated Gibraltar, December 8, 1870, when he was on his way to Cadiz, Spain, to observe another eclipse; during the summer vacation of the following year he was sent by the United States Government to Sherman, Wyoming, the highest point on the Union Pacific Railroad to make observations with the large Dartmouth spectroscope attached to the telescope, and this work added greatly to his reputation.

In the records of February 15, 1871, is the following: The paper of the evening was upon "The Geology and Topography of the White Mountain Group by Professor Hitchcock. After the reading of the paper, Professor Hitchcock stated that he was in direct telegraphic communication with the party on the summit of Mt. Washington; whereupon the President sent greeting and received the following reply: "Mt. Washington is evidently above the limit of surface winds. No easterly wind on record. N. and N. W. winds prevail .... the thermometer is very variable; in one case it changed 121 degrees In two days, . . . . with the wind 80 miles per hour and a temperature of 20° below zero, the thickest wool clothing is but a slight protection .... No east winds, consequently colds are unknown .... We go from the room with the thermometer at 70°, into the open air where it is minus 10° without gloves or overcoat and never take cold." This winter spent on the top of Mt. Washington for the purpose of scientific observations was entirely due to the enterprise and perseverance of Professor Hitchcock, in securing from the United States Government about $1000 worth of apparatus and equipment, together with a cable up the mountain in order to be in communication with the world below. The headquarters of this expedition were in Professor Hitchcock's office in Culver Hall. Daily reports from the summit of Mt. Washington appeared in the leading journals of the country.

In February, 1872, a Committee was appointed to ascertain the spot on the banks of the Connecticut River where John Ledyard then a Dartmouth student, later the great American traveller, cut the pine tree for the dug-out called a canoe, in which he descended the river to Hartford, Conn., his former home. This Committee consisted of Dr. Dixi Crosby and the Secretary, Prof. Robert Fletcher; it was said at the time that Dr. Crosby knew better than anyone else the location of the spot. In September of that year, the Secretary reported that nothing had been done in locating the spot owing to the illness of Dr. Crosby. Mr. Hiram Hitchcock was then added to the Committee. In April, 1873, the Committee reported that the site is not determined owing to the continued illness of Dr. Crosby; at that meeting the Committee were directed "to make arrangements for setting a monument on the spot, when definitely fixed, and for a celebration by the Association, at the place with appropriate exercises." At the December meeting of that year, Prof. H. E. Parker read a paper on the life of John Ledyard, sketching his early life and connection with Dartmouth College and the story of his later achievements; he spoke of the bearing of his labors and travels on the scientific advancement of the age and the general welfare of the world. Mr. H. Hitchcock gave an account of the attempts to determine the place of his burial in Cairo, Egypt; he spoke of the efforts of many American travellers, including his own, to discover the exact spot, but without success; the general belief is that he was buried in Fostat (Old Cairo). Professor Parker's paper, considerably enlarged, is printed in the The Dartmouth of February, 1874. Why the Scientific Association did not erect a memorial, as intended at first, is difficult to state, but the death of Dr. Dixi Crosby in September, 1873, may explain in part. Fortunately Melvin O. Adams, 1871, and John A. Aiken, 1874, revived an interest in the memorial tablet in 1905, and the result is very satisfactory and greatly to their credit, as may be seen by a visit to the spot just below where Webster vale emerges on the fiat- near the river bank.

At the same meeting, February, 1872, Professor Dimond explained the process by which he was making gas from crude paraffin, a residuum from petroleum distillation, in the plant recently erected in Hanover; his room in Culver Hall was lighted with gas, being the first public exhibition of gas lighting in town.

At the meeting of February 17, 1872, Professor Quimby called attention to the great magnetic storm of the 4th of the month, detected by observations on the Magnetometer, recently loaned the College by the United States Government and set up in Wentworth Hall; the needle was deflected 5°-25' between 10 a. m. and 2 p. m., giving an unusual and remarkable curve of variation. Professor Young later reported that there was a remarkable display of the Aurora on that date visible in some parts of the United States but more especially in Bombay, Suez and other eastern localities; he considered it one of the most extensive of these phenomena on record, and very important as it pointed to the confirmation of the close connection of magnetic storms on the earth with the auroral display.

At the December meeting, Mr. Hiram Hitchcock exhibited four heads of statues found in Cyprus and presented to him by the American Consul, General de Cesnola; three are Grecian and one Assyrian, the latter possibly executed as long ago as 500 B. C. or even earlier; as relics of art and specimens of very ancient art they were viewed with great interest. At a following meeting in February, General de Cesnola was present and explained the method of hod of opening- the tombs in Cyprus and stated that the Phoenecian, Assyrian and Grecian relics threw much light on the succession of occupancy of the island by the dominant nations of antiquity. The de Cesnola collection, given by Mr. Hitchcock, is now the property of the College and is awaiting classification and cataloguing for public exhibition.

In May, 1876, Professor Young reported an important discovery made by using a diffraction grating of 8640 lines to the inch in spectroscopic observations; the corona line 1474 up to that time had seemed to indicate the presence of iron, giving- much perplexity to astronomers; he then found that it was a double line, an iron line being in close proximity to the corona line, and the difficulty was removed.

The last years of the Seventies are replete with references to the great invention of the age, the telephone, and various reports were made upon it; Professor Dolbear of Tufts College, one of the inventors, and some think the first to use the magneto-telephone, explained to the Association how he approached the discovery in a purely scientific way. The meeting of February 9, 1878, was devoted to a telephone concert given by the Dartmouth Glee Club which was stationed at the home of Professor Quimby, while the Association was meeting in Thornton Hall. After an explanation of the working of the instrument, the audience composed of the literary section with lady friends, in addition to the regular members,, was favored with various songs which were distinctly heard and highly appreciated by the listeners; when all wras quiet the music could be heard in any part of the room.

Ma.rch 28, 1883, Professor Fletcher reported that by measurements on the ice in the river' he found the slope from the Bridge at Hanover to the Falls at Olcott to be seven inches; the thickness of ice at Lugget's Ledge to be thirty-six inches near the shore and eighteen inches in the middle of the river. At the next meeting, April 18, he reported that the slope of the water, due to its high state, between the Bridge and the Falls, was from four to four and a half feet; the flow was thirty to thirty-five times low water flow.

The records in the early eighties contain frequent references to the many discoveries in Electrical science; in March, 1883, the writer gave an exhibition of electric lighting in various forms, as the first public exhibition in electric lighting in town. The Philosophical room in Reed Hall, the home of Physics and Astronomy until Wilder Laboratory was built in 1898-99, was lighted successively by thirteen sixteen-candle power Edison lamps, by twenty-one eight-candle power lamps, and by the electric arc; the current required for the illumination and the estimated cost of electric lighting compared with gas was also stated.

The May meeting's of 1884 present an unusual phase of the Association; at the close of a paper by Prof. Edwin J. Bartlett on "The Educational Value of Chemical Studies", which called forth an interesting discussion from the members and the many visitors present, it was voted "that at the next meeting each one present shall discuss briefly the value of his College course." In the report of the next meeting is the following record: "The order of the evening was the discussion of the subject — 'The value of my College course'. Nineteen of the gentlemen present took part in the discussion. The majority valued the mental discipline most highly. A few had derived great benefit from association with the Faculty, —a few had no such association. The stimulating and otherwise beneficial effect of class association was highly spoken of by several. The principal studies of the course were each represented by special students and the due amount of credit was given to each. The practical value in most cases was due to the professor chosen'. A very few valued highly the general knowledge acquired." The writer queries if discussion of the same subject today would have a similar result.

At the March meeting in 1888, there was exhibited in the Physics lecture room the first Electric motor in town which connected with the Gramme Dynamo, ran a sewing machine and the Holtz electric machine. At the following meeting, Prof. Edwin B. Frost reported on the feasibility of lighting Hanover by the alternate current system of electricity, deriving the power at Olcott Falls.

In the spring of 1900, Prof. D. Collin Wells, to whom the Association owes much for his interest and work in it, proposed for discussion the following question: "Is the New England community degenerating?" This aroused so much interest that two evenings were given to the discussion; during the discussion a vote of those reared in rural communities was taken, and seven of the nineteen voting believed that it was in a state of decline, while twelve were of opposite opinion; of the twelve, six thinking that it had improved and six that it was holding its own.

On February 4, 1903, a paper on "Light Pressure and Comets' Tails" was given by Professor Nichols, which was a summary of the work done by Professor Hull and himself in proving experimentally the existence of light pressure, in the measurement of its quantity and in its application to the repulsion of matter in the tails of comets. After the reading of the paper, an opportunity was given the large audience of over one hundred to see the repulsion excited by light rays upon silver plated mirrors and upon vegetable spores. It is an honor to this Association that this remarkable work was planned and executed by two of its active members.

The unbroken records of meetings for nearly fifty years, with reports upon almost every conceivable subject, doubtless forms a unique experience for Dartmouth among American Colleges and Universities. Thinking this to be true, I wrote to twenty-five of the older Colleges and Universities in New England, the Middle States, and the Middle West and have received a reply from each of them. Twelve of the number have nothing of the kind, though some have seminars in particular branches of Science. Seven have Scientific Societies in some form, none so fully organized as this one, and all of more recent date. Four depend upon the meetings of. the Sigma Xi Society m scientific matters. Two, Yale and Williams, have Lyceums of Natural History, including the College and vicinity, and these were formed between 1820 and 1830, and have had their "ups and downs". I conclude that the Dartmouth Scientific Association stands alone in its organization, development, and continuous existence as an active and progressive Society among College organizations for so long a time.