Part 4

“During twenty years from the inception of this Journal, the editor labored alone, although overtures for editorial cooperation had been made to him by gentlemen commanding his confidence and esteem, and who would personally have been very acceptable. It was, however, his opinion that the unity of purpose and action so essential to the success of such a work were best secured by individuality; but he made every effort, and not without success, to conciliate the good will and to secure the assistance of gentlemen eminent in particular departments of knowledge. On the title page of No. 1, vol. =34=, published in July, 1838, a new name is introduced: the individual to whom it belongs having been for several years more or less concerned in the management of the Journal, and from his education, position, pursuits and taste, as well as from affinity, being almost identified with the editor, he seemed to be quite a natural ally, and his adoption into the editorship was scarcely a violation of individual unity. His assistance has proved to be very important:—his near relation to the senior editor prevents him from saying more, while justice does not permit him to say less.”

As is distinctly intimated in the preceding paragraph the elder Silliman was fortunate in obtaining the assistance in his editorial labors of numerous gentlemen interested in the enterprise. Their cooperation provided many of the scientific notices, book reviews and the like contained in the Miscellany with which each number closed. It is impossible, at this date, to render the credit due to Silliman’s helpers or even to mention them by name. Very early Asa Gray was one of these as occasional notes are signed by his initials. Dr. Levi Ives of New Haven was another. Prof. J. Griscom of Paris also sent numerous contributions even as early as 1825 (see =9=, 154, 1825; =22=, 192, 1832; =24=, 342, 1833, and others).

Some statements have already been quoted from the early volumes as to the business part of Silliman’s enterprise. The subject is taken up more fully in the preface to volume =50= (1847). No one can fail to marvel at the energy and optimism required to push the Journal forward when conditions must have been so difficult and encouragement so scanty. He says (pp. iii, iv):

This Journal first appeared in July, 1818, and in June, 1819, the first volume of four numbers and 448 pages was completed. This scale of publication, originally deemed sufficient, was found inadequate to receive all the communications, and as the receipts proved insufficient to sustain the expenses, the work, having but three hundred and fifty subscribers, was, at the end of the year, abandoned by the publishers.

An unprofitable enterprise not being attractive to the trade, ten months elapsed before another arrangement could be carried into effect, and, therefore, No. 1 of vol. =2= was not published until April, 1820. The new arrangement was one of mutual responsibility for the expenses, but the Editor was constrained nevertheless to pledge his own personal credit to obtain from a bank the funds necessary to begin again, and from this responsibility he was, for a series of years, seldom released. The single volume per annum being found insufficient for the communications, two volumes a year were afterward published, commencing with the second volume.

The publishers whose names appear on the title page of the four numbers of the first volume are “J. Eastburn & Co., Literary Rooms, Broadway, New York” and “Howe & Spalding, New Haven.” For the second volume and those immediately following the corresponding statement “printed and published by S. Converse [New Haven] for the Editor.”

Silliman adds (p. iv):

At the conclusion of vol. =10=, in February, 1826, the work was again left upon the hands of its Editor; all its receipts had been absorbed by the expenses, and it became necessary now to pay a heavy sum to the retiring publisher, as an equivalent for his copies of previous volumes, as it was deemed necessary either to control the work entirely or to abandon it. The Editor was not willing to think of the latter, especially as he was encouraged by public approbation, and was cheered onward in his labors by eminent men both at home and abroad, and he saw distinctly that the Journal was rendering service not only to science and the arts, but to the reputation of his country. He reflected, moreover, that in almost every valuable enterprise perseverance in effort is necessary to success. He being now sole proprietor, a new arrangement was made for a single year, the publishers being at liberty, at the end of that time, to retire, and the Editor to resume the Journal should he prefer that course.

The latter alternative he adopted, taking upon himself the entire concern, including both the business and the editorial duties, and of course, all the correspondence and accounts. From that time the work has proceeded without interruption, two volumes per annum having been published for the last twenty years; and its pecuniary claims ceased to be onerous, although its means have never been large....

Later in the same preface he adds (p. xiv):

It may be interesting to our readers to know something of the patronage of the Journal. It has never reached one thousand paying subscribers, and has rarely exceeded seven or eight hundred—for many years it fluctuated between six and seven hundred.

It has been far from paying a reasonable editorial compensation; often it has paid nothing, and at present it does little more than pay its bills. The number of engravings and the extra labor in printer’s composition, cause it to be an expensive work, while its patronage is limited.

It is difficult at this date to give any adequate statement of the amount of encouragement and active assistance given to Silliman by his scientific colleagues in New Haven and elsewhere—a subject earlier alluded to. It is fortunately possible, however, to acknowledge the generous aid received by the Journal in the early days from a source near at hand. It has already been noted in another place that the dawning activity of science at New Haven was recognized by the founding of the “Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences,” formally established at New Haven in 1799 and the third scientific body to be organized in this country. From the beginning of the Journal in 1818, the Connecticut Academy freely gave its support both in papers for publication and at least on one occasion later it gave important financial aid. Upon the occasion of the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the Academy on October 11, 1899, Professor, later Governor, Baldwin, the president of the Academy, discusses this subject in some detail. He says in part:

To support his [Silliman’s] undertaking, a vote had been passed in February [1818], “that the Committee of Publication may allow such of the Academy’s papers as they think proper, to be published in Mr. Silliman’s Scientific Journal.”

Free use was made of this authority, and a large part of the contents of the Journal was for many years drawn from this source. In some cases this fact was noted in publication;[2] but in most it was not....

In 1826, when the Journal was in great need of financial support, the Academy further voted to pay for a year the cost of printing such of its papers as might be published in it. In Baldwin’s Annals of Yale College, published in 1831, it is described as a publication “honorable to the science of our common country,” and having “an additional value as being adopted as the acknowledged organ of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences.”

Many active campaigns were carried on over the country through paid agents to obtain new subscribers for the Journal and it was doubtless due to these efforts that the nominal subscription list was, at times, as already noted, relatively large as compared with that of a later date. The new subscribers in many cases, however, did not remain permanently interested, often failed to pay their bills, and the uncertain and varying demand upon the supply of printed copies was doubtless one reason why many single numbers became early out of print.

An interesting sidelight is thrown upon the efforts of Silliman to interest the public in his work, at its beginning, by a letter to the editor from Thomas Jefferson, then seventy-five years of age. The writer is indebted to Mr. Robert B. Adam of Buffalo for a copy of this letter and its interest justifies its being reproduced here entire. The letter is as follows:

Monticello, Apr. 11. ’18.

Sir

The unlucky displacement of your letter of Mar 3 has been the cause of delay in my answer. altho’ I have very generally withdrawn from subscribing to or reading periodical publications from the love of rest which age produces, yet I willingly subscribe to the journal you propose from a confidence that the talent with which it will be edited will entitle it to attention among the things of select reading for which alone I have time now left. be so good as to send it by mail, and the receipt of the 1st number will be considered as announcing that the work is commenced and the subscription money for a year shall be forwarded. Accept the assurance of my great esteem and respect.

Th. Jefferson

Professor Silliman.

_Contributors._—An interesting summary is also given by Silliman of the contributors to the Journal and the extent of their work (vol. =50=, pp. xii, xiii); he says:

We find that there have been about 600 contributors of original matter to the Journal, and we have the unexpected satisfaction of believing that probably five-sixths of them are still living; for we are not certain that more than fifty are among the dead; of perhaps fifty more we are without information, and if that additional number is to be enrolled among the “stelligeri,” we have still 500 remaining. Among them are not a few of the veterans with whom we began our career, and several of these are still active contributors. Shall we then conclude that the peaceful pursuits of knowledge are favorable to long life? This we think is, _cœteris paribus_, certainly true: but in the present instance, another reason can be assigned for the large amount of survivorship. As the Journal has advanced and death has removed its scientific contributors, younger men and men still younger, have recruited the ranks, and volunteers have enlisted in numbers constantly increasing, so that the flower of the host are now in the morning and meridian of life.

We have been constantly advancing, like a traveller from the equinoctial towards the colder zones,—as we have increased our latitude, stars have set and new stars have risen, while a few planetary orbs visible in every zone, have continued to cheer us on our course.

The number of articles, almost exclusively original, contained in the Journal is about 1800, and the Index will show how many have been contributed by each individual; we have doubtless included in this number _some few_ articles republished from foreign Journals—but we think they are even more than counterbalanced by original communications without a name and by editorial articles, both of which have been generally omitted in the enumeration.

Of smaller articles and notices in the Miscellany, we have not made any enumeration, but they evidently are more numerous than the regular articles, and we presume that they may amount to at least 2500.

Of party, either in politics or religion, there is no trace in our work; of personalities there are none, except those that relate to priority of claims or other rights of individuals. Of these vindications the number is not great, and we could heartily have wished that there had been no occasion for any.

_General Scope of Articles._—Many references will be found in the chapters following which throw light upon the character and scope of the papers published in the Journal, particularly in its early years; a few additional statements here may, however, prove of interest.

One feature that is especially noticeable is the frequent publication of articles planned to place before the readers of the Journal in full detail subjects to which they might not otherwise have access. These are sometimes translations; sometimes republications of articles that had already appeared in English periodicals; again, they are exhaustive and critical reviews of important memoirs or books. The value of this feature in the early history of the Journal, when the distribution of scientific literature had nothing of the thoroughness characteristic of recent years, is sufficiently obvious.

It is also interesting to note the long articles of geological description and others giving lists of mineral or botanical localities. Noteworthy, too, is the attempt to keep abreast of occurring phenomena as in the many notes on tornadoes and storms by Redfield, Loomis, etc.; on auroras at different localities; on shooting stars by Herrick, Olmstead and others.

The wide range of topics treated of is quite in accordance with the plan of the editor as given on an earlier page. Some notes, taken more or less at random, may serve to illustrate this point. An extended and quite technical discussion of “Musical Temperament” opens the first number (=1=, pp. 9–35) and is concluded in the same volume (pp. 176–199). An article on “Mystery” is given by Mark Hopkins, A.M., “late a tutor of Williams College” (=13=, 217, 1828). There is an essay on “Gypsies” by J. Griscom (from the Revue Encyclopédique) in volume =24= (pp. 342–345, 1833), while some notes on American gypsies are added in vol. =26= (p. 189, 1834). The “divining rod” is described at length in vol. =11= (pp. 201–212, 1826), but without giving any comfort to the credulous; on the contrary the last paragraph states that “the pretensions of diviners are worthless, etc.” A long article by J. Finch on the forts of Boston harbour appeared in 1824 (=8=, 338–348); the concluding paragraph seems worthy of quotation:

“Many centuries hence, if despotism without, or anarchy within, should cause the republican institutions of America to fade, then these fortresses ought to be destroyed, because they would be a constant reproach to the people; but until that period, they should be preserved as the noblest monuments of liberty.”

The promise to include the fine arts is kept by the publication of various papers, as of the Trumbull paintings (=16=, 163, 1829); also by a series of articles on “architecture in the United States” (=17=, 99, 1830; =18=, 218, 220, 1830) and others. Quite in another line is the paper by J. W. Gibbs (=33=, 324, 1838) on “Arabic words in English.” A number of related linguistic papers by the same author are to be found in other volumes. Papers in pure mathematics are also not infrequent, though now not considered as falling within the field of the Journal.

Applied science takes a prominent place through all the volume of the First Series. An interesting paper is that on Eli Whitney, containing an account of the cotton gin; this is accompanied by an excellent portrait (=21=, 201–264, 1832). The steam engine and its application are repeatedly discussed and in the early volumes brief accounts are given of the early steamboats in use; for example, between Stockholm and St. Petersburg (=2=, 347, 1820); Trieste and Venice (=4=, 377, 1822); on the Swiss Lakes (=6=, 385, 1823). The voyage of the first Atlantic steamboat, the “Savannah,” which crossed from Savannah to Liverpool in 1819, is described (=38=, 155, 1840); mention is also made of the “first iron boat” (=3=, 371, 1821; =5=, 396, 1822). A number of interesting letters on “Steam Navigation” are given in vol. =35=, 160, 162, 332, 333, 336; some of the suggestions seem very quaint, viewed in the light of the experience of to-day.

A very early form of explosive engine is described at length by Samuel Morey (=11=, 104, 1826); this is an article that deserves mention in these days of gasolene motors. Even more interesting is the description by Charles Griswold (=2=, 94, 1820) of the first _submarine_ invented by David Bushnell and used in the Revolutionary War in August, 1776. An account is also given of a dirigible balloon that may be fairly regarded as the original ancestor of the Zeppelin (see =11=, 346, 1826). The whole subject of aërial navigation is treated at length by H. Strait (=25=, pp. 25, 26, 1834) and the expression of his hopes for the future deserve quotation:

“Conveyance by air can be easily rendered as safe as by water or land, and more cheap and speedy, while the universal and uniform diffusion of the air over every portion of the earth, will render aërial navigation preferable to any other. To carry it into effect, there needs only an immediate appeal on a sufficiently large scale, to experiment; reason has done her part, when experiment does hers, nature will not refuse to sanction the whole. Aërial navigation will present the works of nature in all their charms; to commerce and the diffusion of knowledge, it will bring the most efficient aid, and it can thus be rendered serviceable to the whole human family.”

A subject of quite another character is the first discussion of the properties of chloroform (chloric ether) and its use as an anæsthetic (Guthrie, =21=, 64, 405, 1832; =22=, 105, 1832; Levi Ives, =21=, 406). Further interesting communications are given of the first analyses of the gastric juice and the part played by it in the process of digestion. Dr. William Beaumont of St. Louis took advantage of a patient who through a gun-shot wound was left with a permanent opening into his stomach through which the gastric juice could be drawn off. The results of Dr. Beaumont and of Professor Robley Dunglison, to whom samples were submitted, are given in full in the life of Beaumont by Jesse S. Myer (St. Louis, 1912). The interest of the matter, so far as the Journal is concerned, is chiefly because Dr. Beaumont selected Professor Silliman as a chemist to whom samples for examination were also submitted. An account of Silliman’s results is given in the Beaumont volume referred to (see also =26=, 193, 1834). Desiring the support of a chemist of wider experience in organic analysis, he also sent a sample through the Swedish consul to Berzelius in Stockholm. After some months the sample was received and it is interesting to note in a perfectly fresh condition; it is to be regretted, however, that the Swedish chemist failed to add anything to the results already obtained in this country (=27=, 40b, 1835).

The above list, which might be greatly extended, seems to leave little ground for the implied criticism replied to by Silliman as follows (=16=, p. v, 1829):

A celebrated scholar, while himself an editor, advised me, in a letter, to introduce into this Journal as much “_readable_” matter as possible: and there was, pretty early, an earnest but respectful recommendation in a Philadelphia paper, that Literature, in imitation of the London Quarterly Journal of Science, &c. should be in form, inscribed among the titles of the work.

_The Second, Third and Fourth Series._

The SECOND SERIES of the Journal, as already stated, began with January, 1846. Up to this time the publication had been a quarterly or two volumes annually of two numbers each. From 1846 until the completion of an additional fifty volumes in 1871, the Journal was made a bimonthly, each of the two yearly volumes having three numbers each. Furthermore, a general index was given for each period of five years, that is for every ten volumes.

Much more important than this change was the addition to the editorial staff of James Dwight Dana, Silliman’s son-in-law. Dana returned from the four-years cruise of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition in 1842; he settled in New Haven, was married in 1844, and in 1850 was appointed Silliman professor of Geology in Yale College. He was at this time actively engaged in writing his three quarto reports for the Expedition and hence did not begin his active professional duties in Yale College until 1856. Part of his inaugural address was quoted on an earlier page.

Dana had already performed the severe labor of preparing the complete index to the First Series, a volume of about 350 pages, finally issued in 1847. From the beginning of the Second Series he was closely associated with his brother-in-law, the younger Silliman. Later the editorial labor devolved more and more upon him and the larger part of this he carried until about 1890. His work, was, however, somewhat interrupted during periods of ill health. This was conspicuously true during a year’s absence in Europe in 1859–60, made necessary in the search for health; during these periods the editorial responsibility rested entirely upon the younger Silliman. Of Dana’s contributions to science in general this is not the place to speak, nor is the present writer the one to dwell in detail upon his work for the Journal. This subject is to such an extent involved in the history of geology and zoology, the subjects of several succeeding chapters, that it is adequately presented in them.

It may, however, be worth stating that in the bibliography accompanying the obituary notice of Dana (=49=, 329–356, 1895) some 250 titles of articles in the Journal are enumerated; these aggregate approximately 2800 pages. The number of critical notes, abstracts, book reviews, etc., could be also given, were it worth while, but what is much more significant in this connection, than their number or aggregate length, is the fact that these notices are in a large number of cases—like those of Gray in botany—minutely critical and original in matter. They thus give the writer’s own opinion on a multitude of different subjects. It was a great benefit to Dana, as it was to science also, that he had this prompt means at hand of putting before the public the results of his active brain, which continued to work unceasingly even in times of health prostration.

This may be the most convenient place to add that as Dana became gradually less able to carry the burden of the details involved in editing the Journal in addition to his more important scientific labors, particularly from 1890 on, this work devolved more and more upon his son, the present editor, whose name was added to the editorial staff in 1875, with volume =9=, of the Third Series. The latter has served continuously until the present time, with the exception of absences, due to ill health, in 1893–94 and in 1903; during the first of these Professor Henry S. Williams and during the second Professor H. E. Gregory occupied the editorial chair.

The THIRD SERIES began in 1871, after the completion of the one-hundredth volume from the beginning in 1818. At this date the Journal was made a monthly and as such it remains to-day. Fifty volumes again completed this series, which closed in 1895.

The FOURTH SERIES began with January, 1896, and the present number for July, 1918, is the opening one of the forty-sixth volume or, in other words,—the one hundred and ninety-sixth volume of the entire issue since 1818. The Fourth Series, according to the precedent established, will end with 1920.

_Associate Editors._—In 1851 the new policy was introduced of adding “Associate Editors” to the staff. The first of these was Dr. Wolcott Gibbs of Cambridge. He began his duties with the eleventh volume of the Second Series in 1851 and continued them with unceasing care and thoroughness for more than twenty years. In a note dated Jan. 1, 1851 (=11=, 105), he says: