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The Transylvania College collections of early books in the Academic, Legal, and Medical fields, and especially the latter, have been noted many times.1 But it is less well known that Transylvania purchased at home and abroad extensive orders of philosophical apparatus, as well as medical charts and models, and that a considerable quantity of these remain to the present time.
     Good reasons for the relative neglect of the early apparatus in favor of the early books can be conjectured. In the first place, books are more easily handled and stored. A two pound book measuring eight by ten inches and purchase in 1821 has a better chance of survival than an electric battery purchased the same year. An elephant folio weighing sixteen pounds while difficult to preserve still has a better survival index than an Atwood's machine standing more than seven feet tall and weighing perhaps eighty pounds.
     In the second place, many of the early books purchased in the Paris book stall by Dr. Charles Caldwell in 1821 were, at that time, old and already venerated for their historical importance. The apparatus for classroom demonstration, however, by the nature of its use had to be of the latest and most functional design.
     In the third place, books usually have title pages, showing authorship and date of publication. They also usually have prefaces stating the purposes for which the books were written. A piece of early apparatus sometimes bears the name of the instrument maker, very seldom the date of manufacture, and the use can only be inferred from the appearance and the relation of the movable parts.
     It is not surprising that the library books should have received prior attention while the relics of medicine and natural philosophy languished in obscure closets and in hot and dirty attics.
     It is a gratifying fortuity that so many items have survived rather than a cause of dismay that some of the them have vanished and many of them show signs of neglect.
     The materials which are now being identified and assembled in one place fall rather conveniently in to three chronological groups and also into two major use categories.
     The first grouping consists of those purchases made before 1800 and during the first thirty-five years or so of the last century. During this stretch of almost fifty years, many of the items were bought in the United States2 and abroad but comparatively few of them have survived in an identifiable and complete condition to the present. The first purchase of which we have record was a celestial globe bought in 1790 for seven pounds. And while purchases were made frequently thereafter, a most important acquisition of demonstration apparatus was that made by Dr. Charles Caldwell in Paris in 1821. While Dr. Caldwell added important columns to the Medical School Library, his purchases of apparatus were for experiments in classical physics (mechanics, heat, light, pneumatics, etc.) (Figure 1 shows the first page of the Caldwell purchase) and were not for biology or medicine.
     Most of the apparatus purchased by Dr. Caldwell did not survive the constant use by students and professors, and the removal from one building to another. The hazards of fire and war, too, took their toll. However, a few impressive pieces remain, such as Atwood's Machine (Figure 6), a hygrometer (Figure 38), and a vacuum pump by Pixii (Figure 82).
     The Caldwell purchases of both books and apparatus had an interesting time relationship to the Medical Department of Transylvania University. While the Medical Department was begun in 1799, it continued in an informal and desultory way until 1817 when it was put on a sounder basis.3 Dr. Caldwell's buying trip to Paris was a factor in the emergence of the Medical School.
     The second important acquisition of the materials, in a chronological sense, was that made in 1839 by Dr. Robert Peter and Dr. J.M. Bush of the medical faculty. Just as there was a connection between the Caldwell purchases and the need for upgrading the Medical Department in its initial years, so there was a very clear connection between the Peter and Bush purchases and the need to restore confidence in the medical instruction in Lexington at the close of the fourth decade of the nineteenth century.
     The schism which divided the medical faculty in 1837 and which led to the formation of a medical college in Louisville led to efforts to improve the Lexington institution. This was accomplished in part by the appropriation of monies for the library and for apparatus and by the erection of a new and much enlarged Medical Building.
     The City of Lexington came to the aid of Transylvania University and appropriated $20,000 "to purchase a Library for the Law Department and to increase the Apparatus and Library of the Medical Department." The sum of five thousand dollars was assigned to the Medical Department. The latter was adopted, ordered, and recorded in the following manner.

     The sum appropriated to increase the Library and Apparatus of the Medical Department being $15,000 this committee recommends that the sum of $2000 should be retained at home, to pay Insurance, Freight, and Carriage, etc., and to meet contingencies. Should this sum be more than sufficient to the objects thus specified, the balance can well be disposed of in the purchase of publications now announced as forthcoming from the American Press and which will probably appear by the end of the year.

          Amount of Fund                         $15,000
          Retained at Home                         2,000
                                              ----------
                                                  13,000
          Exchange on Philadelphia                   200
                                              ----------
                                                  12,800
          Total expended in NY & Phil.             1,000
                                              ----------
                                                  11,800
          Exchange in London                       1,180
                                              ----------
                                                  10,620
          Travelling expense of Agent                500
                                              ----------
                                                  10,120
     This committee recommend the appointment of an agent by the medical faculty whose compensation for his expenses and services shall be $500 and who shall proceed forthwith to the East and to Europe for the purpose of making the purchases hereinafter specified and that before he draws the $13,000 which will be placed in his hands, he shall give bond with unquestionable security to be approved by this committee and in penalty of $20,000 for the faithful rendering of an accurate account of the moneys of the University that may be placed in his hands and for the due appreciation of them in the manner following vis:

     To the purchase of Books & Plates on Anatomy and the
          Institutes of Medicine                                                $2,500
     Do on the theory and practice of medicine                                   1,500
     Do Obstetrics                                                                 500
     Do Materia Medica and Therapeutics                                            500
     To Do Chemistry & Pharmacy                                                    500
     To Do Natural History, Geology, and Mineralogy                                500
     To the purchase of chemical and philosophical apparatus                     2,500
     Preparations for Anatomical and Surgical Department                         1,500
     Models and etc. for obstetrical department                                    500
     Specimens and drawings for materia medica and therapeutics                    500
     Medical Jurisprudence and Medical Magasine and Reviews                        120
                                                                            ----------
                                                                               $11,120
               Retained at Home                                                  2,000
               Agent's Expenses                                                    500
               Exchange in Philadelphia and Europe                               1,380
                                                                            ----------
                                                                               $15,000
              All which is Respectfully Submitted
                    H. I. Bodley
                    M.C. Johnson
                    R. Wickliffe, Jr. 
                         (Committee)
     The purchases made as the result of this appropriation are the best authenticated of all because Dr. Peter was a most methodical man and kept careful day by day noted on his trip. From his memorandum book he can be followed first through Paris in June and July, and then through London in August as he visited one instrument maker after another. Between June 18 and July 18, 1839, he placed orders with Dr, Auzoux, Boiveau et Pelletier, Eugene Bourdon, Professor A. Chazal (40 Drawings of medicinal plants), Deleuil, Derouche, Ain Guy, Pixii (père et fils), and Dr. Felix Thibert ("Le Docteur"). In August, between the ninth and the twenty-first, Dr. Peter ordered supplies, equipment, and demonstration materials from the following London establishments: A. Alexandre (wax arm), E.M. Clarke, Mr. Miller (Medical Museum of Dr. J. Miller), John Newman, George Knight & Sons, and Watkins & Hill. Each such visit was accompanied by a list of the items ordered and the cost of each. A typical page in the memorandum book looks like this: (This is not an exact copy as Peter's abbreviations cannot always be easily transcribed. Some of his spellings have been retained here, however.)
     Deleuil -- Rue Dauphins 22 & 24.  July 6, 1839
     1 Airpump, glass cylinder on new prin. of Bubinet
          (10 in. Plate)                                  400 Fr.
     Bell Glass -- with stem bulb, etc                     35
     2 Do -- large and long                                15
     1 Baroscope and Bell glass                            35
     1,000 cupels assorted                                 64
     1 apparatus of Orsted (water compr.)                  65
     Glass fire syringe                                    18
     2 large brass mirrors, etc.                          140
     cube 4 in. dift. metals                               45
     Thermoscope of Rumford                                14
     Calorimeter of Lavoisier                              55
     Daniell's hygrometer                                  40
     2 isolated cylinder electricty induct.                45
     6 squares of polished glass                           20
     Glass globe, elecy, in vac.                           30
     1 multiplier of Peclet                                45
     1 mag-elec. machine of Clarke                        300
     1 Volta's pile                                        30
     2 Raspail's microscope                                75
     1 Geol. compass                                       25
     2 stopcocks for electric machine                       8
     2 adapters for do                                      5
     2 lbs. Wire cord silk and cotton                       8
     1 apps. Rotatn. Wound poles magnet                    60
     Appat. of Zamboni                                     60
     Ball and point for electricity                         5
     1 litre varnish 8.50 tripoli 5                        13.50
     Strip of iron and zinc -- riveted                     10
     chain                                                  5
     agate mortar                                          25
     appart. gavl. insulated spheres                       80
     2 separate piles of Zamboni                           20
     Elec. dync. apparatus of Ponillet                    220
     Packing and 3 boxes                                   70
                                                        --------
                                                         2085.50
     The new Medical Building was built in 1839 and occupied in the year 1840-41. In the Annual Announcement of the Medical Department for the year 1839-40, there is reprinted the valedictory address of Dean Thomas D. Mitchell to the graduating class. This address bears witness to the new building and to the teaching aids so recently purchased from abroad. This address in glowing terms describes the new purchases and proclaims that the aids to teaching medicine at Transylvania are not excelled elsewhere.
     The third large acquisition of apparatus was the purchase of the Philip S. Fall collection. This purchase has no relationship to the Medical Department or to the medical faculty. In fact, the details of the purchase of these many items and the route to their final location in Lexington are somewhat complicated.
     The story starts with Bacon College which was founded in 1836 at Georgetown, Kentucky. The college moved to Harrodsburg in 1839, where it was conducted until insufficient funds led to its suspension in 1850. In 1855-56, efforts were made to revive Bacon College. These efforts were successful, but were too ambitious to conform to the term "college" so in 1858 the name Kentucky University was chosen. In 1864 the buildings of Kentucky University were destroyed by fire, and the young university removed to Lexington where it merged with Transylvania University. The consolidated institutions, under the name of Kentucky University, began their first session in October 1865.
     Dr. Philip Fall from whom the equipment was bought had founded a young ladies' school near Frankfort in 1831. For this school, which was located at Poplar Hill and was called The Kentucky Female Eclectic Institute, he apparently had purchased considerable quantities of apparatus. He also, perhaps, had bought apparatus abroad for possible resale to colleges in Kentucky.
     With this brief resume as a background, the purchase of many of the choicest items in the Transylvania Museum can be outlined with confidence.
     On June 24, 1857, the following resolution was passed by the Board of Bacon College:
     Resolved that J.B. Bowman, I.A. Dearborn, and J. Aug. Williams be appointed a Committee to purchase of P.S. Fall his Apparatus.
     And on August 28 of the same year, the following minute was passed by the Board:
     Resolved that this Board request and authorize Prof. White to receive the apparatus of Prof. Fall and that he be hence authorized to sign for the Board all notes and other papers necessary to the final settlement for the same and that a ll necessary expenses be defrayed by this Board. Jno. August Williams
     In October of 1857, a letter from Prof. White showed that the Fall apparatus had been successfully moved to Harrodsburg from Frankfort and that the purchase price was $4500. The equipment for this sum is listed in a letter written by Prof. Fall as follows:
     List of the principal instruments purchased in London and Paris, etc. for the Female Eclectic Institute. The first cost stated, including exchange (sometimes 22 percent) and commissions. The breakage is not taken into account. This, together with packing cases and carriage, would increase the cost at least 15 percent. The articles will be delivered here, in perfect working order. Some have been recently refitted, making them as valuable as new apparatus.
1.A five feet, four inch aperture, equatorially mounted achromatic refracting Telescope: with eight eyeglasses, two for terrestrial, and six for celestial objects. One of the latter is of blue glass, for the study of Venus. Another is a Troughton's Spider line micrometer for the measurement of angles. The highest power is 400: that of 260 has a mother of pearl micrometer.



$ 720.00
2.A superior clock, for solar or sideral time450.00
3.A superb planetarium, Lunarium and Telluran, all fitted to the same stand.210.00
4.A grand cal-oxyhydrogen microscope, and polariscope, with large collection of complete apparatus, and very numerous and most beautiful objects for both; preserved between plates of glass in Canada balsam

910.00
5.A superior compound microscope (complete)80.00
Apparatus for viewing objects by polarised light with ditto30.00
6.A very superior triplett magnifier for ditto17.00
Collection of most beautiful and rare objects for ditto42.00
7.A superior Lucernal microscope complete100.00
8.A pair of 9 inch mirrors $17, Stanhope lens $219.00
9.A set of Claude glasses $6. Landscape mirror $511.00
A camera lucida, $10. A camera Obscura, $35.45.00
A multiplying glass, $3, microscope with diamond beetle, $47.00
A Heliostat with clock movement (for fixing the sun's image)42.00
Revolving disc for white light $6. Wheatstone's photometer $1016.00
A Schwerd's apparatus for interference of light, affording most gorgeous experiments 60.00
A telescope to be used with do30.00
A splendid Dioptic Lantern105.00
A large collection of sliders for do243.00
An artificial eye on a brass stand (dissected)7.00
A hollow prism $6. Two glass prisms $9.15.00
A set of cut glass geometrical solids (for crystallography)15.00
A set of unannealed glass figures for polarization of light in mahogany sliders12.00
A magnificent air pump by Chevalier -- with a very full collection of apparatus upon a similar scale, from Paris.1070.00
Apparatus bought in Boston for the airpump:
    The mercury shower $5, and expansion gauge $1.506.50
    Torricellian Receiver $2.50. Globe fountain $7.9.50
    Brass arm $1. Revolving jet $1. Funnel do $13.00
    Syringe for fountain $5. Fountain by expansion $4.509.50
    Bolt head and receiver $4.50. Large condensing apparatus $3034.50
    Gas bags $4. Guinea & feather apparatus $15.19.00
    Model of Diving bell $3. Fruitstand and Candlestick $1.504.50
    Jar on foot for beer or water $1. Open receiver $1.50. Handglass     $1.504.00
    Receiver with globe for weighing air, graduated to cubic inches5.00
A best standard barometer with thermometer and hygrometer35.00
A whirling table for demonstrating the laws of motion, with apparatus complete 141.75
A set of mechanical powers all in brass141.75
A horizontal pyrometer (beautifully made)60.00
A hydrostatic ballance and set of extra weights69.00
Large cast iron trough for mercurial experiments.78.00
100 lb. Mercury (more or less) at $1 per lb. (Worth $1.50 per lb.)100.00
Glass apparatus for do50.00
A self acting spirit blowpipe in brass12.00
A beautiful collection of 200 selected specimens for the study of mineralogy55.00
A splendid 33 inch plate electric machine195.00
Collection of beautiful apparatus for do155.00
A box of magnetic apparatus40.00
A galvanic deflagrator 50 pairs plates 9 x 6 inches50.00
A couronne de tasses 12 pairs of copper & zinc8.00
A collection of beautiful Electri-magnetic apparatus from London; also a collection of Thermo-electric & magneto-electric apparatus286.00
A collection of Boston made Electro-Magnetic Apparatus containing the latest improvements75.00
A Hero's fountain -- $20.00 machine for composition of forces, 2040.00
Wollaston's steam Apparatus 1.50 Marcet's high pressure do 25.26.50
Rain gauge $5.00. Wind gauge 5.00 Arsenic Appl. 2.5012.50
Agate Mortar and Pestle 4.50 Platina Crucible 7.50. Do spoon 1.5013.50
Platina forceps -- 2.50. Hope's Eudiometer 2.50. Platina Wire 6.11.00
Chemical Chest $30. Platina foil $4. Woulfe's App. $5.39.00
A Magellan's portable lamp furnace, complete.45.00
Detonating tubes $9 & spring stand for do 4.13.00
Differential thermometer $3 chemical do from 70 below Zero to 650 above $69.00
Machine for making wood cuttings for microscopes.18.00
24 sliders without objects and boxes of talc for Do.12.00
Sprit level and space bubble2.50
Ure's Eudiometer and Pepy's gas transferrer4.00
A large Pneumatic Cistern lined newly with copper with apparatus for compound blowpipe.175.00
Glass apparatus for do.20.00
A splendid Nooth's apparatus with space base20.00
A self regulating hydrogen apparatus15.00
A set of Brass reflectors for experiments with heat35.00
An air thermometer $2. With glass funnel $4.6.00
A sliver evaporating dish for alkalies22.00
Gold wire for poles of galvanic batteries18.00
A Green & Gold Gasometer40.00
A pair of 16 inch American Globes110.00
A set of six lenses for refraction7.00
A brass lamp stand with copper sand bath12.00
___________
$6,699.00

    Some of the material bought by Dr. Fall bears the name of the French instrument major Chevalier. We know from Dr. Peter's memorandum book that he purchased extensively from the London firm of E.M. Clarke. A business connection between these two firms is apparent in the following label found inside the case of the Electro-Magnetic machine of E.M. Clarke (Figure 19).

    Edward M. Clarke/ optician/ Laboratory of Science/ an d Warehouse for/ Magnetical, Philosophical, Optical, and Chemical/ Instruments and Appara tus / manufactured by/ Edward M. Clarke/ Magnetical and Philosophical Instrument Make rs/ by appointment to the royal/ University of Christina [sic], Norway/ and the/ Zoological Society of London/ (directly opposite of the Royal Gallery of Practical Sciences, late of Agar St. Strand)/ in cooperation with/ Charles Chevalier/ Ingenieur Optician; Brenete par le Roi etc. etc./ Palais-Royal, No. 163, Galerie Volois Paris/ Is enabled to supply his Friends and the Public in general with the/ latest French Improvements and Inventions in Scientific Instruments/ and Apparatus.

In the space between the second line and the third are placed reproductions of three medallions which had been awarded to E. W. Clarke.
    Although the philosophical apparatus and the medical models and charts were often purchased by the same representative of the early University and although the apparatus had some relevance to early instruction in medicine, (especially in chemistry) today they constitute two somewhat diverse series of items in our collection. Practically all of the medical models and charts which remain today were purchased by Dr. Peter as is evidenced by his memorandum book. The materials purchased by Peter inherently had different probabilities of survival. Of the anatomical specimens preserved in spirits none has endured the one hundred and twenty years since its purchase. Of the anatomical and pathological models those made in plaster have endured with some breakage. The many exquisite models in wax have suffered from two hazards. In cold weather they are brittle, in hot weather they become soft. Nevertheless many of then have survived tot he present time. The greatest deterioration is seem in the papier-mache models. The glue and the sawdust of these Auzoux models have been especially attractive to insect pests. Many of the larger models, due to difficulty of storage, are completely worthless and ready to be discarded. Some comments on purchase and the present condition of these relics of the early Medical Department will be made in the appropriate place.
    While the Transylvania College Catalogue, as recently as 1940, contained a paragraph purporting to describe "The Museum," no mention is made of the apparatus and models which are described in this brochure. In fact, the 1940 catalogue description of the museum holdings was identical with that used over thirty years earlier when the building housing the museum was built. The materials of science and medical teaching purchased before 1860 were variously located in basements, laboratory storage shelves, and among the recognized museum objects. The preservation of these early items became especially uncertain in 1933 when the "museum" room was dismantled and the materials carried to the attic. The extremes of temperature and humidity as well as the presence of dust during the past quarter of a century have been especially destructive to the bird and mammal skins of the natural history portion of the earlier museum collections.
    The present effort to identify and assemble the early apparatus was begun in 1949.4 In spare moments the items were located, cleaned, assembled (to the degree possible) and photographed. As time permitted, attempts at identification were made. While the Transylvania Library is adequately rich in early dictionaries, encyclopedias, and text books of chemistry and natural philosophy it is entirely wanting in the catalogues of nineteenth century instrument-makers. These catalogues were found in the Public Libraries of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia; in the Libraries of the Franklin Institute, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Library of Congress, and in selected college and university libraries such as those of Harvard and Oberlin.
    In 1954 temporary space was made available in the Library Building and representative pieces of apparatus as well as remainders of the early medical materials were finally brought together in one room. It is hoped that withing a few years a permanent home can be found and that a small Museum on the Teaching of 19th Century Science can be opened to the public.

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