Dr. House was peculiarly fitted for this work, for he had been
providentially prepared to draw upon a wide range of scientific
instruction. His years at Rensselaer Institute had developed his
taste for natural philosophy and had given him a lifelong interest
in the progress of science. His study of medicine had qualified
him in practical chemistry, while his few years of teaching gave
him needed experience in laboratory demonstrations. While trying
some experiments with gas in Siam he recalls “occasions of the same
kind at Rensselaer school and in the Virginia school.” Busy as he
was, he managed to keep abreast of scientific progress through the
journals of science, and was forward to adopt new ideas as he found
them. In March, 1847, he writes:
“In evening read account of inhaling ether as a means of
enabling one to perform surgical operations without pain to
the patient. A wonderful discovery truly—inestimable in its
benefit to the suffering of our race—and the author of it
was an American.”
At the first opportunity he applied the new idea to a patient in
surgery:
“Old woman of eighty-four; piece of bamboo eight inches had
entered her flesh, remaining still unextracted. O, how I
wished I had an apparatus for inhaling ether—I prepared an
extempore one.”
In 1851 he reads of “a new way devised in Paris by suspending a
pendulum from high dome to trace and render visible the motion of
the earth on its axis”; and after a private experiment, straightway
he makes the demonstration for his science-loving Siamese friends.
Like many missionaries, Dr. House was a student of nature,
contributing to other scholars his observations. He was a member
of the “American Oriental Society.” He was a correspondent of the
naturalist, Mr. John C. Bowring, at Hong Kong, son of the diplomat,
for whom he undertook to collect and forward specimens of Siamese
insects and shells; and in this pursuit he became the discoverer
of two varieties of shells previously unknown to naturalists, to
which his name has been given, “Cyclostoria Housei” and “Spiraculum
Housei.” In his volume on Siam, Mr. George B. Bacon, speaking of
the flora and fauna of Siam, remarks:
“The work of scientific observation and classification has
been, as yet, only imperfectly accomplished. Much has been
done by the missionaries, especially by Dr. House, of the
American Presbyterian Mission, who is a competent scientific
observer.”
In his modesty he was surprised to find that his activities in
this line were known in Europe. Dining at the Prussian Embassy at
Bangkok, in 1862, he was introduced to the son of Chevalier Bunsen,
who remarked that “he had heard of Dr. House in Europe; he has
given his name to a new species of shell; he was the first to make
Siamese shells known to the world.” When Dr. Lane left Siam, in
1855, Dr. House took over from him and continued the meteorological
observations because “it may be valuable by-and-by for the
Siamese.” On one occasion he had a bit of amusing chagrin in trying
to determine the elevation of a mountain. He had constructed a
new thermometer for himself and proposed to estimate the altitude
by ascertaining the boiling point. After carefully explaining the
theory to his native companions, placing the kettle on the fire, he
eagerly watched for the first sign of boiling. To his astonishment
the thermometer indicated that the chosen position, instead of
being several hundred feet above the sea, must be many feet down
below the earth’s surface—and then he discovered that there was a
fault in his thermometer.