University of Virginia Library

VII. Courses of Instruction, Continued

The duty of teaching both Latin and Greek grew more
and more onerous for one instructor as the number of
students increased. It was said, before the chair of
ancient languages was divided, that it was as taxing in its
requirements as any two other professorships in the University;
and that as much application was necessary to win

its diploma as to graduate in moral philosophy, natural
philosophy, and chemistry united. Down to 1856, there
seems to have been no assistant assigned to Harrison
either in Latin or in Greek. However great the labor
which was thus imposed on him,—the correction of exercises
alone, he said in 1851, left him no time for study,
or for making any written contributions to the knowledge
of his subjects,—the students, who, from year to year
sat under him never had cause to complain of neglect;
and it was a signal advantage to them too that they, as
they passed from the junior to the senior section, were
still under the tuition of the same accomplished teacher.
"It was quite a novelty to the young men who came from
other colleges," we are told by Professor Francis H.
Smith, one of his pupils, "to find that, in the lower class,
they met the same learned man they afterwards listened
to with increased homage in the higher and more difficult
division." What with the addition to his professorial
duties, and the constant drafts upon his time and
thought as chairman, it became finally imperative that he
should receive aid in carrying on the two courses. At
first but one assistant was allowed him, and as he considered
one inadequate, he, in June, 1855, formally recommended
that his chair should be divided. The Board, deciding
that they had no power to do this, offered him the
services of a second assistant. Edward S. Joynes was appointed
as his subordinate in the instruction of the Latin
classes, and William Dinwiddie, in the instruction of
the Greek.

In 1843, the number of students enrolled in the School
of Ancient Languages was only thirty-three; but, by the
session of 1855–56, the attendance had grown in volume
to two hundred and fifty-nine. Not even an instructor
with two assistants could thoroughly teach such a large

body of young men in such a variety of branches as
the original professorship embraced. On May 26, 1856,
the Board of Visitors determined to divide it,—the Latin
language was assigned to one chair, and Greek and Hebrew
to the other. "As a tribute to Professor Harrison's
merit, his eminent reputation, and his services to the
University, and the cause of classic learning in Virginia,"
—to use the words of their resolution,—they allowed
him the privilege of selecting whichever of the new professorships
he should prefer, and he chose the chair of
Latin. In addition to the fixed salary of one thousand
dollars, he was permitted to appropriate to himself all the
fees accruing from the members of his class. There
was, at this time, as we shall see, a maximum salary, and
the exception thus created in his favor caused some irritation
among the other members of the Faculty. The assistants
were not reappointed, and all the duties of the
new chairs were performed by the incumbents.

The system of instruction which Harrison had followed,
with so much distinction to his school, was continued
without any relaxation of energy as he grew
older. An occasional voice, however, was now heard
that he gave too much scrutiny to the philological aspects
of the language,—the skeleton of it as it were,—and
too little to nourishing among his pupils a taste for the
classical spirit. In opposition to this view, it was said by
Dr. Broadus,—and correctly so,—that Harrison was
successful in accomplishing the "main and primary objects
of his course"; that, if the literature of the ancients
was not much attended to, it was because "all the time
afforded was taken up with what was of more permanent
importance"; that his method was "the method followed
in all the great schools of England and Germany"; and
that it was the method which had produced in England

alone "such great scholars as Milton and Johnson, Arnold
and DeQuincy."

The programme of study adopted by the new professor
of Greek, Basil L. Gildersleeve, embraced (1) the Greek
language, (2) the Greek literature, and (3) the history
of Greece. His classes were divided into junior and
senior. A conspicuous feature of his system of instruction
was the written exercise, and his extended comments
on the corrections. An examination for admission to the
senior class was required unless the student had been a
member of the junior. During the session of 1859–60,
a post-graduate department was created, which gave advanced
scholars an opportunity to study such of the Greek
classics as were considered to be unsuited, in form or subject,
to be taught in the regular courses. There was also
a course in the Hebrew language.

In the School of Modern Languages, Professor Kraitsir,
as we have mentioned, had offered to teach,—in addition
to French, Spanish, Italian, and German,—the Provençal,
Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Icelandish, Dutch,
Bohemian, Polish, Russian, and Magyar tongues. His
successor, Schele de Vere, was certainly not so accomplished
a polyglot, but was probably more industrious, for,
in the course of every week, he, at one period, delivered
thirteen lectures. He was the first professor, for many
years, to resume the use of the ground-floor of his pavilion
as a lecture-hall. In the interval between 1850
and 1857, he was assisted, in succession, by three subinstructors,
two of whom,—Ernest Volger and A. Von
Fischerz,—were of foreign birth. There was, in this
school, about 1858, an attempt to return to another feature
of Jefferson's original plans: it was decided that its
students should be required to speak as well as to read
the languages which were taught in it. Three assistants

were to be employed, one of whom was to be fluent in
French, another in German, and a third in Italian and
Spanish. The class was to be carefully drilled in sections,
and no member, after the session of 1859–60, was to be
permitted to graduate without having given proof of his
ability to converse easily and correctly in these Continental
tongues. The experience of a single session
brought out the inconvenience of this new provision. It
was found that the students' attention was too much diverted
from those parts of the course which were of more
permanent value, and in June, 1859, the regulation was
repealed. In the following year, the lectures by the professor
of modern languages on history and literature, in
connection with this school, were discontinued. Lectures
on history were considered to be more appropriate to the
chair now occupied by Professor Holmes. But in March,
1861, the Faculty recommended the renewal of the lectures
on Continental literature, as they thought a satisfactory
acquaintance with it should be a prerequisite to graduation
in the School of Modern Languages.

The number of classes in the School of Mathematics
was, during the Fifth period, 1842–1861, reduced from
six to five. At first, Professor Courtenay's syllabus of
the lesson for next day was written in chalk on the blackboard
in the lecture-room; but, at a later period, it was
printed in large type on white cotton sheets, which, one
after another, in the progress of the course, were suspended
on the board for the students to copy. No textbook
was used. There were three lectures a week. In
1849, Courtenay asked the Board to purchase a set of
instruments for use in giving lessons in practical surveying;
and four hundred and thirty-five dollars was appropriated
for that purpose. No important alteration in
the School of Mathematics was made by Bledsoe after

his election to that chair. Towards the end of the fifth
decade, the studies of the junior class were confined to
algebra, synthetic geometry, trigonometry, and surveying;
those of the intermediate class, to nautical astronomy,
navigation, and descriptive geometry; and of the
senior, to differential and integral calculus. There were
also lectures on the history and philosophy of mathematics
and on the general laws of equilibrium and motion,
both of fluids and solids, with a variety of applications
to physical astronomy.

During the session of 1844–5, the number of classes
in natural philosophy were increased from two to three:
there were the junior and senior classes in natural philosophy
itself, and, in addition, a class in geology and
mineralogy. In the latter course, particular attention
was directed to the physical structure and mineral properties
of our own country; and the mineral zones were
described at length by means of maps and sections. In
the studies of the senior class, a comprehensive view
was given of general physics. The philosophical apparatus
used in this school had, by 1851, become very
incomplete in each division; indeed, there were several
important branches which could not be treated experimentally
for lack of the required instruments—such, for
instance, as the phenomena of polarization and double
refraction. There were also no means of illustration
in the department of mineralogy. By the session of
1858–9—Francis H. Smith having succeeded William B.
Rogers—many of these deficiencies had been removed,
and the ground covered by the lectures very much enlarged.
Astronomy was now included in the course.

When George Tucker resigned the professorship of
moral philosophy, the chair was offered to Professor
Thomas R. Dew, of the College of William and Mary,

a man who is principally remembered in our own times
as an acute defender of the institution of slavery; but
he declined. William Maxwell and Dr. James L.
Cabell were candidates for the vacancy. The latter
had always felt a keen distaste for his anatomical duties,
"a kind of labor," he remarked, "which, in all other
medical schools, is performed by young men just advancing
into business." Rev. Wm. H. McGuffey was
the successful applicant. Under his charge, the course
at first was divided between three classes: the junior,
which was engaged with the study of rhetoric, belles-lettres,
and philosophical criticism; the intermediate,
with the study of political economy and the ethics of
society; and the senior, with that of mental philosophy,
logic, theoretical and practical ethics. During the session
of 1857–8, the number of classes was cut down to
two,—in the senior, thereafter, were taught mental and
moral philosophy, logic, belles-lettres, and criticism; and
in the junior, political economy and the ethics of society.

The course in chemistry,—which was a department
of the School of Chemistry and Materia Medica, and
could be studied jointly with the latter subject, or separately,
—was, like the School of Natural Philosophy,
very much hampered, as late as 1851, by the lack of
apparatus; indeed, the professor in charge of it was
forced to borrow from his colleague most of the instruments
which he was required to use. There was not
a single perfect one for experiments in caloric; and there
were no means of exhibiting the sources, kinds, relations,
and effects of electricity; and no arrangements for
showing the various modes of producing galvanic currents.
A great improvement in the facilities of the
chair followed the opening of the Annex, since a laboratory
and a lecture-room were assigned to the school in

the new building. Professor J. Lawrence Smith now
filled this important professorship. He was relieved of
the duty of teaching materia medica and therapeutics,
—which subjects were taken over by the lecturer on
anatomy,—and in their place, Smith was required to
deliver a more extended course of lectures on agricultural
chemistry, and also to give instruction in pharmacy.
During the session of 1853–4, this school, then
in charge of Professor Socrates Maupin, was known
as the School of Chemistry and Pharmacy. Maupin's
academic chair was designated "chemistry" and his
medical chair as "chemistry and pharmacy."

A department of applied chemistry was created in
1858. It was first suggested by Professors Maupin,
Cabell, and Davis; and the resolution for its establishment
was submitted to the Board by William J.
Robertson, one of the Visitors. The new department
was associated with the School of Chemistry; its field
of study embraced qualitative and quantitative analysis,
and the employment of chemistry in the arts; and its
students must either be members of the regular class
of chemistry, or have pursued elsewhere a course in its
elementary branches. In the latter case, they were at
liberty to matriculate in the department of applied
chemistry only, if they wished to do so. The instructor
was selected by the professor of chemistry. The first
was David K. Tuttle. It was his duty to keep the
laboratory open, and to remain there eight hours daily
during five days of the week. This valuable course
was in active operation when the War of Secession began.