MISCELLANY. 



53 



chosen field was natural history, and before 

 he was nineteen, at which age he published 

 his first scientific paper on conchology, he 

 had made extensive collections. In his 

 search for specimens at the bottom of the 

 sea, he pushed out into deep water and 

 claimed to be the first to enter upon the 

 work of deep-sea dredging. He studied 

 with Agassiz, and in 1852 accompanied 

 him to Norfolk to investigate the marine 

 fauna of that region. He was appointed 

 naturalist to the North-Pacific Exploring 

 Expedition, and spent three and a half years 

 (1852-1856) in observations and collections. 

 For nine years after his return, he remained 

 for the most part in the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, working up the results of his world- 

 wide explorations. He became curator of 

 the Chicago Academy of Sciences in 1864, 

 and was soon after elected secretary. 



In an able obituary address before the 

 Chicago Academy, President Foster has 

 enumerated his chief contributions to sci- 

 ence, and thus speaks of his labors in the 

 institution : 



He maintained a correspondence with 

 not less than fourteen kindred societies at 

 home and over one hundred abroad. He 

 organized a system of exchanges by which 

 our library was supplied with the scientific 

 journals and Transactions, and our museum 

 enriched with natural-history specimens 

 from every quarter of the globe: He edited, 

 with an accuracy of proof-reading rarely 

 surpassed, the two parts of our Transactions, 

 and prepared our annual reports with an al- 

 most commercial exactness. So thoroughly 

 classified were the collections, that he could 

 instantly refer the scientific inquirer to the 

 particular specimen required. Under his 

 directorship, the collections in certain de- 

 partments of natural history had grown to 

 be the most complete in the country ; and 

 learned foreigners, in pursuit of information, 

 resorted here as to one of the chosen seats 

 of science. This vast collection had been 

 accumulated within the short space of five 

 years ; for, on the 7th of June, 1866, our 

 previous accumulations were almost wholly 

 destroyed by fire. Under this calamity 

 Stimpson bore up manfully, but when the 

 tremendous catastrophe of the 8th of Octo- 

 ber occurred he was, as it were, crushed to 

 earth. From that time, I think, his spirit 

 lost its buoyancy ; and, while he assumed 

 an air of cheerfulness, in his quivering lip 

 and tremulous voice it was easy to detect 

 what he would fain conceal. The iron had 

 entered his soul. Let him who would ac- 

 cuse our friend of undue weakness, read 



over the melancholy catalogue of losses pre- 

 pared by the secretary, and dated the 30th 

 of October last, and then call to mind that, 

 in addition to the total destruction of the 

 Academy's collections, which he had ar- 

 ranged and classified, his own collections 

 had been involved in the general calamity ; 

 rare books, obtained with difficulty, or pre- 

 sentation copies bearing the autographs of 

 the authors ; shells which he had dredged 

 from the ocean all the way from Nova 

 Scotia to the Japanese Sea ; and manuscripts 

 in which were embodied the results of 

 twenty years of almost unremitting scien- 

 tific labor, and whose publication he fondly 

 hoped would form the solid basis of his 

 fame. 



Dr. Stimpson had long suffered from 

 weakness of the lungs, and died of hemor- 

 rhage May 26, 18*72, aged 41. 



Purification of Coal-Gas. In the ordi- 

 nary process of manufacturing coal-gas it is 

 found necessary to put the product through 

 a course of purification before it is fit for 

 illuminating purposes. The sulphur com- 

 pounds are the most deleterious of its im- 

 purities, and how these may be best removed 

 forms the subject of an instructive lecture, 

 recently delivered by Mr. Vernon Harcourt 

 at the Koyal Institution, from which we 

 condense the following : Sulphur being an 

 almost constant constituent of the coal from 

 which gas is made, it is volatilized in the 

 retorts and passes over with the gas in 

 combination with its two principal elements, 

 carbon and hydrogen. Unpurified coal-gas 

 thus contains sulphuretted hydrogen the 

 gas of rotten eggs aud bisulphide of car- 

 bon. A considerable part of the sulphu- 

 retted hydrogen is removed in the " condens- 

 ers " and " scrubbers " by the action of water 

 and ammonia. It has, however, been found 

 that, if coal-gas is washed too much, its 

 illuminating power is greatly impaired, and 

 indeed all washing does some injury to it in 

 this respect. To complete the removal of 

 sulphuretted hydrogen, the washed coal-gas 

 is passed through large boxes, containing 

 either lime or oxide of iron, and which are 

 termed purifiers. Either of these substances 

 acts very effectually in depriving coal-gas of 

 its sulphuretted hydrogen. Lime is the 

 cheaper material, but has the serious draw- 

 back that when saturated with sulphuretted 

 hydrogen its smell is very offensive, so that 

 when taken out of the purifiers it becomes 



