Memories of Brown; traditions and recollections gathered from many sources . llege course,for I distinctly remember that I had the option of substi-tuting for Greek, which had been required in the case ofcandidates for the A. B. degree in the freshman and soph-omore years, a laboratory course in chemistry in the junioryear. I had at the time a lurking suspicion that laboratorywork in chemistry might have a closer relation to modernlife than Greek, but scholastic traditions were strong,laboratory work was unfamiliar and therefore uninviting,and I chose the Greek in the confident persuasion that
Memories of Brown; traditions and recollections gathered from many sources . llege course,for I distinctly remember that I had the option of substi-tuting for Greek, which had been required in the case ofcandidates for the A. B. degree in the freshman and soph-omore years, a laboratory course in chemistry in the junioryear. I had at the time a lurking suspicion that laboratorywork in chemistry might have a closer relation to modernlife than Greek, but scholastic traditions were strong,laboratory work was unfamiliar and therefore uninviting,and I chose the Greek in the confident persuasion that itwas both a more approved and promising instrument ofculture, and in the profession of teaching, to which I pur-posed to devote myself, a subject rated at a higher marketvalue. 222 Memories of Brown In the early 60s, the requirements for the degree ofA. B. included prescribed work in all the great domainsof knowledge. Thus we studied not only the Greek andLatin classics, two modern languages, English literature,rhetoric, logic, and intellectual and moral philosophy, but. Professor William Gammell, 1831(Taken about 1864) we studied the physical sciences also. In. this way we leftno department of human investigation untouched. I sayuntouched rather than unexplored, advisedly, for thesciences, at least in the A. B. course, were taught mainlyfor purposes of information rather than of training. Thuswe studied general chemistry, geology, physiology, physics,astronomy, etc., but we had no laboratory work in any ofthese sciences. Indeed, except in the mathematical parts Memories of Brown 223 of mechanics and astronomy, our sole dependence was onthe notes that we took of lectures and on such ob-servation as we could give from our seats in the lectureroom to illustrative experiments performed by the profes-sor. Moreover, the overworked professor taught, not onesubject, but a group of subjects and as a rule he had noassistant of higher grade than the janitor. The professors who instruct
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