information from which it was hoped to ascertain where Cutbush might
have obtained the Doctorate in the first decade of the 19th Century
failed to produce the fact. Libraries were searched and volumes that
ordinarily convey such information were studied without positive
result.

The little contribution on the "Philosophy of Chemistry" was favorably
known, for Silliman, in his reference to Gorham's Chemistry as the
first book upon this subject by a native American, credits Cutbush
with having written a similar work, but speaks of the effort of
Cutbush as more elementary and not as exhaustive as that of Gorham.
The introduction in the first volume of Cutbush's work will always be
interesting to American students of the science. For example, this
quotation:

"Several original works have, accordingly, appeared, and some
editions of European treatises have been published with
revisions, corrections and additions by our countrymen. The
Chemical and Economical Essays of Pennington, the edition of
Chaptal enlarged by the late James Woodhouse ... that of
Henry's Chemistry by Professor Silliman of Yale College, with
some others, evince not only the learning and talents of our
countrymen, but a growing taste for the encouragement of
learning and the acquisition of chemical knowledge. Besides
these, in the Transactions of our Societies and in the
journals, or periodical works, several valuable papers have
appeared. The genius of the medical students of the
University of Pennsylvania, in particular, has been shown in
a number of excellent inaugural dissertations, some of which
have added to the improvement of chemical science.

"The first teacher of chemistry was Dr. Benjamin Rush ... who
may justly be styled the father of chemistry in America. He
commenced a course of lectures on this science in the then
College of Philadelphia; and although chemistry at that day
(1768) may be said to have been in its infancy, yet the
Doctor did honour to the chair, the school, and his country.
We now speak of him only as a chemist.... The advancement of
chemistry in our city ... is also indebted to other
institutions. The American Philosophical Society, the College
of Physicians, instituted in 1787, the Medical Society,
formed in 1771; the Chemical Society under the patronage of
Doctors Woodhouse and Seybert, which has since been