Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/279

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

ii: the chair of ancient languages, his choice being Gessner Harrison, then barely twenty- one years of age, and he held the appoint- ment for one year, but during that time he gave such abundant evidence of his talent and unusual attainments in scholarship, that in the following year his installation was made permanent, and his service was destined to cover the long period of thirty- one years, only ending then at his own voli- tion. He was probably the first in the United States to employ the methods of comparative grammar in teaching Latin and Greek. He was insistent upon an ample knowledge of history and geography in studying the classics, and, for want of text- books, himself prepared a pamphlet to meet the needs of his students. For seven years Professor Harrison occupied the position of chairman of the faculty, finally declinbig reelection. In 1859, overburdened by the pressure of work, he resigned and removed t(/ Albemarle county, where he opened a classical school for boys, which was subse- quently removed to Xelson county, and was an institution of greatest influence through- out the South. Professor Harrison was the author of two works of approved merit: and ** Exposition of Some of the Laws of Latin Grammar," New York, 1852. He also wrote for Duyckinck's "Cyclopedia of Amer- ican Literature," a historical sketch of the University of Virginia.
 * 'Greek Prepositions," Philadelphia, 1848,

Emmet, John Patten, M. D., born at Dub- lin, Ireland, April 8, 1796, son of Thomas Addis Emmet, the distinguished Irish pa- triot, who emigrated to this country in 1804, settling in New York City, where he be- came a lawyer of note, and was elected

attorney -general of the state in 1812. John P. Emmet accompanied his father to the United States, and attended a private school in Flatbush. Long Island, New York. In 1814 he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, and after gradua- tion was detailed as acting assistant pro- fessor of mathematics, which position he held until his resignation early in 1817, owing to ill health. In 1819, upon his re- turn to New York from Naples, whither he had gone in order to recuperate, he began the study of medicine under the preceptor- ship of Dr. William J. Macneven, after which he matriculated in the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he received his medical degree in 1822. He at once located for active practice in Charleston, South Carolina, remaining until 1825, and while so engaged gained a reputation as a popular lecturer on Chem- istry, his lectures attracting the attention of the founders of the University of Vifginia, and when the first professors of that insti- tution were appointed, in 1825, Dr. Emmet was called to the chair of chemistry, and his warrant, written and signed by Thomas Jefferson, is yet preserved. Dr. Emmet served in that capacity until 1842, a period of seventeen years, and during a portion of that time delivered a regular course of lec- tures upon materia medica as well as on chemistry. In addition to his capability as a lecturer, he was a skilled draughtsman, a sculptor of no mean ability, a musician, a composer, skillful in the composition of English verse, and was a careful writer, chiefly upon chemical and kindred topics. The more notable of his papers are con- tained in "Silliman's Journal ;'* these include
 * • Iodide of Potassium as a Test for Arsenic,"

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