SKETCH OF BR. J. LAWRENCE SMITH. 235 



Grecian Archipelago, increased the amount of emery used live or six 

 fold, with a corresponding reduction in price. In many of the arts 

 of life the free use of emery or corundum has become a necessity, but 

 this free use of these articles would have been greatly retarded with- 

 out a very material reduction in price. 



While in the employment of the Sultan of Turkey, Prof. Smith 

 investigated a great variety of Turkish resources, besides those directly 

 within the purview of his appointment as mining engineer. His paper 

 on the " Thermal Waters of Asia Minor " is one of extreme interest 

 and great scientific value. 



In 1851 Prof. Smith invented the inverted microscope, an impor- 

 tant improvement ; for, while it may do the work of any other micro- 

 scope, there are very interesting fields of research which can be cul- 

 tivated by no other instrument. Dr. Carpenter, in his work on "Phys- 

 iology," bears strong testimony to its value. 



After Prof. Smith's return from Turkey, his Alma Mater, the Uni- 

 versity of Virginia, elected him Professor of Chemistry, and, while 

 discharging the duties of that chair, he, in connection with his able 

 assistant, George J. Brush, at present one of the chief professors in the 

 Sheffield School of Science, performed a much-needed work in revising 

 the " Chemistry of American Minerals." A full account of these la- 

 bors was given in the American Journal of Science, and subsequently 

 in a valuable and interesting work containing the scientific researches 

 of Prof. Smith, recently published by J. P. Morton & Co., in the city 

 of Louisville. 



After marrying, in Louisville, the daughter of the Hon. James 

 Guthrie, Prof. Smith adopted that city as his home. He was elected, 

 soon after settling in Louisville, to the chair of Chemistry in the 

 Medical Department of the University of Louisville, a position which 

 he held for a number of years. After resigning that chair, he took 

 scientific charge of the gas-works of Louisville. He has a private 

 laboratory where he spends several hours each day, and continues his 

 devotion to original research. 



Prof. Smith was one of the commissioners to the Paris Exposition 

 of 1867, and made an able report on " The Progress and Condition 

 of Several Departments of Industrial Chemistry." It is very nearly 

 exhaustive of the important subjects to which it is devoted. Prof. 

 Smith was again appointed commissioner to Vienna in 1873, and dis- 

 charged his duties with his usual ability. 



Prof. Smith's important original researches are no less than fifty 

 in number, and his scientific reports are numerous, showing great ac- 

 tivity and perseverance in cultivating the field he has chosen. Among 

 the honors he has received is the hio-hest that American science can 

 confer, the presidency of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, to which he was elected in 1872. 



