trymen." This fact is exemplified by the life of Smithson-born in England, spending most of his time in France and Germany, buried in Italy. and leaving his name and fortune to the United States of America.

Desiring to bring to the practical test of actual experiment every thing that came to his notice, he fitted up and carried with him a portable laboratory. He collected also a cabinet of minerals composed of thousands of minute specimens, including all the rarest genis, so that immediate comparison could be made of a novel or undetermined specimen, with an accurately arranged and labeled collection. With minute balances, his weights scarcely exceeding a gram, and with articles so delicate as to be scarcely visible, he made the most accurate and satisfactory determinations. With a few pieces, not exceeding half a cubic inch in size, of tabasheer, a substance found in the hollow of bamboo canes, he made over two hundred and fifty different experiments.*

The value which Smithson placed on such minute researches is incidentally shown by a remark in his paper on "fluorine." He says, "there may be persons who, measuring the importance of the subject by the magnitude of the object, will cast a supercilious look on this discussion; but the particle and the planet are subject to the same laws, and what is learned of the one will be known of the other."

Smithson's ardor for knowledge and his zeal as a collector of new and rare minerals exposed him sometimes to hardship and privation. An interesting account of one of his journeys is given in his private journal. In 1784, in company with Mr. Thornton, Mons. Faujas de St. Fond, the celebrated geologist of France, the Italian Count Andrioni, and others, he made a tour through New Castle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dumbarton, Tarbet, Inverary, Oban, Arran, and the island of Staffa.

As stated in Mr. Smithson's journal, the party had arrived at a house on the coast of Mull, opposite the island, and the journal continues: "Mr. Turtusk got me a separate boat; set off about half-past eleven o'clock in the morning, on Friday, the 24th of September, for Staffa. Some wind, the sea a little rough; wind increased, sea ran very high; rowed round some part of the island, but found it impossible to go before Fingal's cave; was obliged to return; landed on Staffa with difficulty; sailors prcss to go off again immediately; am unwilling to depart without having thoroughly examined the island. Resolve to stay all night. Mr. Maclaire stays with me; the other party which was there had already come to the very same determination; all crammed into one bad hut, though nine of ourselves besides the family; supped upon eggs, potatoes, and milk; lay upon hay, in a kind of barn." (The party, be it remembered, embraced two English gentlemen, one French savant, one Italian count.)

"25th. Got up early, sea ran very high, wind extremely strong-no boat could put off. Breakfasted on boiled potatoes and milk; dined upon the same; only got a few very bad fish; supped on potatoes and

* See Appendix. Note 4.

milk; lay in the barn, firmly expecting to stay there for a week, without even bread."

"Sunday the 26th.-The man of the island came at five or six o'clock in the morning to tell us that the wind was dropped, and that it was a good day. Set off in the small boat, which took water so fast that my servant was obliged to bail constantly-the sail, an old plaid—the ropes, old garters."

On the 29th, the tourists are at Oban, where a little circumstance is noted, which significantly marks the zeal and activity of the collector of minerals and fossils, and the light in which devotion to geology is sometimes viewed.

"September 29.-This day packed up my fossils in a barrel, and paid 28. 6d. for their going by water to Edinburgh. Mr. Stevenson charged half a crown a night for my rooms, because I had brought 'stones and dirt, as he said into it."

A month later he visited Northwich.

"October 28.-Went to visit one of the salt mines, in which they told me there were two kinds of salt. They let me down in a bucket, in which I only put one foot, and I had a miner with me. I think the first shaft was about thirty yards, at the bottom of which was a pool of water, but on one side there was a horizontal opening, from which sunk a second shaft, which went to the bottom of the pit, and the man let us down in a bucket sinaller than the first."*

These incidents indicate the character of Smithson as a scientific enthusiast, not easily deterred by the fear of personal inconvenience from the pursuit of his favorite object.

Much of his life was passed on the Continent, in Berlin, Paris, Rome, Florence, and Geneva, enjoying everywhere the friendship and respect of the leading men of science,† and always devoting himself to the study of physical phenomena. Distinguished authors, as Gay-Lussac, Marcet, Haüy, Berzelius, and Cordier, presented him with their scientific papers as soon as published, and he enjoyed intimate association and corre spondence with Davy, Gilbert, Arago, Biot, Klaproth, Black, and others. §

As a chemist, Sir Davies Gilbert, President of the Royal Society, pronounced Smithson to be the rival of Wollaston, of whom Magendie said, "his hearing was so fine he might have been thought to be blind, and his sight so piercing he might have been supposed to be deaf." It is related of him that he made a galvanic battery in a thimble, and a platinum wire much finer than any hair.

*Smithsonian Miscell. Coll., No. 327, p. 140.

+ Galton, in speaking of Erasmus Darwin, remarks: "He was held in very high esteem by his scientific friends, including such celebrities as Priestley and James Watt, and it is by a man's position among his contemporaries and competitors that his work may most justly be appraised." Francis Galton, English Men of Science.

See Appendix.-Note 5.

See Appendix.-Note 6.

Prof. Walter R. Johnson has made the following remarks respecting Smithson:

"It appears from his published works that his was not the character of a mere amateur of science. He was an active and industrious laborer in the most interesting and important branch of research-mineral chemistry. A contemporary of Davy and of Wollaston, and a correspondent of Black, Banks, Thomson, and a host of other names renowned in the annals of science, it is evident that his labors had to undergo the scrutiny of those who could easily have detected errors, had any of a serious character been committed. His was a capacity by no means contemptible for the operations and expedients of the laboratory. He felt the importance of every help afforded by a simplification of methods and means of research, and the use of minute quantities and accurate determinations in conducting his inquiries."

Smithson says in one of his papers, "chemistry is yet so new a science," what we know of it bears so small a proportion to what we are ignorant of; our knowledge in every department of it is so incomplete, consisting so entirely of isolated points, thinly scattered, like lurid specks on a vast field of darkness, that no researches can be undertaken without producing some facts leading to consequences which extend beyond the boundaries of their immediate object."*

Many of these "lurid specks" in the vast field of darkness of which Smithson spoke so feelingly, have, Prof. Johnson observes, "since his days of activity expanded into broad sheets of light. Chemistry has assumed its rank among the exact sciences. Methods and instruments of analysis unknown to the age of Smithson have come into familiar use among chemists. These may have rendered less available for the present purposes of science than they otherwise might have been, a portion of the analysis and other researches of our author. The same may, however, be said of nearly every other writer of his day."

Although his principal labors were in analytical chemistry, he distinguished himself by his researches in mineralogy and crystallography, in all his work exhibiting the most careful and minute attention to accuracy. In his second published paper, he observes: "It may be proper to say that the experiments have been stated precisely as they turned out, and have not been in the least degree bent to the system."

That he pursued his investigations in a philosophic spirit, and with proper methods, is evident from the favor with which his contributions to the scientific societies and transactions of the day were received by his contemporaries, and the fact that the results he reached are still accepted as scientific truths.‡

"A chemical analysis of some calamines. Smithsonian Miscell. Coll., No. 327, p. 26. +He carefully noted on the margins of his books mistakes in grammar or orthography, and frequently corrected erroneous statements or improper references in the indexes. An account of some of Smithson's experiments and copies of his notes on minerals and rocks are given in a paper on the works and character of James Smithson, by Dr. J. R. McD. Irby. Smithsonian Miscell. Collections, No. 327, 1879, p. 143.

In one of his essays, he divides the sources of knowledge into, 1st, observation; 2d, reasoning; 3d, information; 4th, conjecture. In all his researches he began the process of acquisition by observing.

One of his sentiments has been adopted as the motto on the publications of the Smithsonian Institution; viz: "Every man is a valuable member of society, who, by his observations, researches, and experiments, procures knowledge for men."

In a critical notice of Davy's Elements of Chemical Philosophy in the Quarterly Review for 1812, the writer speaking of recent advances in chemistry, and especially in the establishment and extension of the law of definite proportions, remarks: "For these facts the science is principally indebted, after Mr. Higgins, to Dalton, Gay-Lussac, Smithson, and Wollaston."*

The mineral species "Smithsonite," a carbonate of zinc, was discovered and analyzed by him, among some ores from Somersetshire and Derbyshire, England. The name, Smithsonite, appears to have been conferred on it by the great French mineralogist Beudant.

It is interesting to notice the number and variety of specimens from the vegetable kingdom that Smithson subjected to analysis. They include the violet, red rose, red clover, daisy, blue hyacinth, hollyhock, lavender, artichoke, scarlet geranium, red cabbage, radish, poppy, plum, pomegranate, mulberry, cherry, currant, buckthorn berries, elder and privet berries. He also examined the coloring matter of animal greens. It is perhaps worthy of note that his first paper related to an article of importance in the materia medica, and his last to a matter of practical value to artists. He by no means confined his attention to abstract science, but contributed knowledge of improved methods of constructing lamps, and of making tea and coffee. That such practical questions might be considered of little importance by men of science he seems to acknowledge by the remarks he makes in one of his papers.

"It is to be regretted," he observes, "that those who cultivate science frequently withhold improvements in their apparatus and processes, from which they themselves derive advantage, owing to their not deeming them of sufficient magnitude for publication. When the sole view is to further a pursuit of whose importance to mankind a conviction exists, all that can should be imparted, however small may appear the merit which attaches to it."†

A secretary of the French Academy deemed it his duty to offer an excuse for having given a detailed account of certain researches of Leibnitz, which had not required' great efforts of the intellect. "We ought," says he, "to be very much obliged to a man such as he is, when he condescends, for the public good, to do something which does not partake of genius." Arago remarked in his eulogy on Fourier, “I cannot conceive the ground of such scruples; in the present day the sciences

+ Some improvements of lamps. Smithsonian Miscell. Coll. No. 327, p. 78.

are regarded from too high a point of view to allow us to hesitate in placing in the first rank of the labors with which they are adorned those which diffuse comfort, health, and happiness amidst the working population."

In another of his papers Smithson says, referring to practical investigations:

"In all cases means of economy tend to augment and diffuse comfort and happiness. They bring within the reach of the many what wasteful proceeding confines to the few. By diminishing expenditure on one article they allow of some other enjoyment which was before unattainable. A reduction in quantity permits an indulgence in superior quality. In the present instance the importance of economy is particularly great since it is applied to matters of high price, which constitute one of the daily meals of a large portion of the population of the earth."

"That in cookery also the power of subjecting for an indefinite duration to a boiling heat, without the slightest dependiture of volatile matter, will admit of a beneficial application, is unquestionable.”*

In the books of his library are found numerous marginal notes, indicating his special attention to subjects relating to the health, comfort, resources, and happiness of the people.

Among his effects were several hundred manuscripts and a great number of notes or scraps on a variety of subjects, including history, the arts, language, rural pursuits, &c. On the subject of "habitations" were articles classified under the several heads of situation, exposure, exterior and interior arrangements, building materials, contents and adornment of rooms, furniture, pictures, statuary, &c. It is not improbable that he contemplated the preparation of a cyclopedia or philosophical dictionary.

Smithson's contributions to scientific literature consist of twenty-seven papers, eight published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal [Society, in the years 1791, 1802, 1806, 1808, 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1817, and nineteen in Thomson's Annals of Philosophy, a journal of the highest scientific character, in 1819, 1820, 1821, 1822, 1823, 1824, and 1825. These papers have recently been collected and reprinted by the Smithsonian Institution. Several of them were previously republished in foreign scientific journals translated by himself.

It is highly probable that Smithson contributed articles to scientific and literary journals other than those mentioned, but they have not yet been discovered.

* An improved method of making coffee. Smithsonian Miscell. Coll., No. 327, p. 88. + Smithsonian Miscell. Coll., No. 327, 1879, 8 vo., 166 pp.