Hunt

medicine but abandoned this subject for chemis-
try, which he first studied at Yale University as
an assistant to Benjamin Silliman, Jr. In 1847
he was appointed chemist and mineralogist of
the geological survey of Canada. During the
twenty-five years he held this joint position he
made many chemical-geological reports of fun-
damental importance and published several arti-
cles of a speculative character. He taught chem-
istry in Laval University, Quebec, from 1856 to
1862, giving his lectures in French, and in Mc-
Gill University, Montreal, from 1862 to 1868.
During this period (1847-62), particularly about
1850, he expounded by reviews and translations
the views of Laurent and Gerhardt on atoms and
molecules and supplemented the speculations of
these eminent French chemists by publishing his
own ideas on theoretical chemistry—especially
on diatomic molecules of gaseous elements and
on the structure of compounds of the water type-
In this latter field he anticipated the views of the
English chemist Williamson and the French
chemist Wurtz. Indeed he often turned his bril-
liant mind into theoretical fields and throughout
his life was usually on the skirmish line. He an-
ticipated Schonbein in the interpretation of the
origin of nitrites and nitrates in nature, and
Dumas in his researches on the equivalent vol-
umes of liquids and solids. Always interested in
organic chemistry, he published an "Introduc-
tion to Organic Chemistry" in the 1852 edition
of Silliman's First Principles of Chemistry in
which he defined organic chemistry, perhaps for
the first time, as "the chemistry of the com-
pounds of carbon." In 1872 he was appointed
professor of geology in the Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology, resigning, however, in
1878 to devote his entire time to expert work and
literary pursuits. Meanwhile, in 1877, he had
married, but finding that marriage interfered
with his career, he and his wife decided to live
apart. He published about one hundred and six-
ty scientific articles, chiefly in the American
Journal of Science. He wrote several books
dealing with chemistry and geology, the best
known being Chemical and Geological Essays
(1875,1878); Special Report on the Trap Dykes
and Azoic Rocks of Southeastern Pennsylvania
(1878); Mineral Physiology and Physiography
< 1886); A New Basis for Chemistry: A Chemi-
cd Philosophy (1887), and Systematic Miner-
**to$y (1891). He was conspicuous among the
chemists who attended the Priestley Centennial
a* Northumberland, Pa., 1874, wtore he read a
piper entitled "A Century's Progress in Chemi-
ea! Theory." He was president of many scien-
tific societies, was elected a fellow of the Royal

Hunt

Society of London in 1859, and a member of the
National Academy of Sciences in 1873.

[James Douglas, memoir in Proc. Am. Phil. Soc.,
Memorial Vol. No. I (1900); Am. Jour, of Sci., Mar.
1892; Persifor Frazer, article in the Am. Geologist,
Jan. 1893 ; J- C. K. Laflamme, Le Docteur Thos. Stcrry
Hunt (1892) ; Jour. Am. Chcm. Soc., Aug. 20, 1926;
E. F. Smith, Chemistry in America (1914) ; G. P. Mer-
rill, The First One Hundred Years of Am. Geology
(1924); the Am. Chemist, Aug., Sept., Dec. 1874; T.
B. Wyman, Geneal. of the Name and Family of Hunt
(1862-63); N. Y. Times, Feb. 13, 1892.] L.C.N.

HUNT, WARD (June 14, i8io-Mar. 24,1886),
justice of the United States Supreme Court, was
born in Utica, N. Y., the son of Montgomery and
Elizabeth (Stringham) Hunt, and a descendant
of Thomas Hunt who resided in Stamford,
Conn., in 1650. His father was for many years
cashier of the First National Bank of Utica. He
attended the Oxford and Geneva academies in
both of which he was a classmate of Horatio
Seymour. At seventeen he entered Hamilton
College but transferred to Union College where
he graduated with honors in 1828. After a peri-
od of study in the law school at Litchfield, Conn.,
he returned to Utica and entered the office of
Judge Hiram Denio. He was admitted to the
bar in 1831 but his health broke down and neces-
sitated his spending the winter in the South. On
his return he entered a law partnership with
Judge Denio and soon had an extensive practice.
In 1838 he was elected as a Jacksonian Democrat
to the New York Assembly from Oneida Coun-
ty and served one term. He opposed the annex-
ation of Texas and the extension of slavery. He
served as mayor of Utica in 1844. As the slavery
controversy increased in bitterness Hunt aban-
doned his earlier affiliations and actively sup-
ported the candidacy of Van Buren and Adams
on the Free-Soil ticket in 1848. He helped or-
ganize the Republican party in New York in
1856, was a zealous supporter of its policies, and
was actively considered by the Republican cau-
cus in Albany in 1857 as a candidate for the
United States Senate.

Hunt had early ambitions for judicial office.
In the late forties he ran for the supreme court
of the state but was defeated, owing, it is alleged,
to the opposition of the Irish vote which was
antagonistic because of his successful defense of
a policeman who had been charged with the
murder of an Irishman. Again in 1853 he ran
on the Democratic ticket for the same office, but
his political deflection to the Free-Soilers five
years earlier brought about his defeat In 1865
he ran as a Republican for the court of appeals,
to succeed his former partner, Judge Denio, and
was elected. Three years later he became chief
judge of that tribunal and remained as commis-

394