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Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/419

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SKETCH OF CHARLES A. JOY.
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share which punishment has in the decrease of crime, but will repeat that in my opinion prevention is far and away better than any possible cure, and that next to prevention stands certainty of detection and of bringing to justice. Punishment, then, naturally comes into operation to serve as a warning and a deterrent to the wavering, and to the detected culprit a chastening experience, that should always be accompanied by influences calculated to reform".

SKETCH OF CHARLES A. JOY

By MARCUS BENJAMIN, Ph. D.

IN tracing the growth of science in this country it is interesting to observe how its development may be followed in the biographies of its leaders; thus, many of our scientists received their first inspiration from the elder Silliman, while those of a later date acquired their great fondness for the life-work to which they devoted themselves from Louis Agassiz. From the leaders the growth of science passed to the institutions with which originally they were connected; then broadening, it located itself permanently with those having the best instruction. In a less degree, but equally true, is such the case in our cities. The story of the development of science in New York city can be acquired almost entirely by reading the lives of such men as Samuel Latham, Mitchell, James Renwick, John Torrey, John William Draper, and John Strong Newberry. From these men its growth passed in time to such institutions as Columbia College, the New York Academy of Science, the University of the City of New York, and the Columbia College School of Mines.

In the development of chemistry in this city Charles Arad Joy took a prominent part; and if, perhaps, his name is not as well known as some others, it must be attributed to the long years of retirement—many of which were years of suffering—that he passed in Europe and in his country home prior to his recent death.

Prof. Joy was born in Ludlowville, Tompkins County, New York, on October 8, 1823. His father was a well-known merchant, but a fondness for literary pursuits seems to have been the habit of the family. An elder brother became distinguished as an able physician, and a sister married an eminent clergyman. With his brother he studied at excellent preparatory schools in Ovid, N. Y., and in Lenox, Mass., and then was sent to Union College, where he was graduated in 1844. Choosing law as his profession, he entered Harvard, where he graduated in course at its law department in 1847, receiving the degree of LL. B. Meanwhile he had