OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : MAY 24, 1864. 295 



were freely distributed to all the public cabinets of Europe, and to 

 many in this country, so that Nova Scotia became widely known as a 

 country in which many rare minerals were found. In 1832 a new 

 and augmented edition of the mineralogical paper by Messrs. Jack- 

 son and Alger, illustrated by a geological map and sections, and with 

 sketches of interesting scenery, was published in the Memoirs of 

 this Academy. 



Several other valuable papers have been published by Mr. Algei', 

 in the American Journal of Science, in the Journal and the Proceed- 

 ings of the Boston Society of Natural History, and in the Proceedings 

 of this Academy. The most noteworthy are : " Description of Re- 

 markable Crystals of Gold from California, with Drawings," — a paper 

 that has been more than once republished in Europe ; " Description 

 of the Zinc Mines of Sussex County, New Jersey"; " Notices of New 

 Localities of Rare Minerals " ; " Minerals of New Holland " ; " Beau- 

 montite and Lincolnite identical with Heulandite"; and a paper on 

 the values and permanency of building-stones. 



Wishing to republish the mineralogy of William Phillips, with 

 additions bringing it up to the advanced state of the science, Mr. 

 Alger most industriously collected the requisite materials, and per- 

 formed the laborious work of revising this excellent book, so as to 

 win the applause of mineralogists both in this country and in Europe. 

 This more than editorial labor he performed mostly at night, after his 

 usual mercantile tasks of the day were ended. Soon after the pub- 

 lication of this important work, in 1849, he received from Harvard 

 University the honorary degree of Master of Ai'ts. Mr. Alger in- 

 tended to produce a new edition of his Phillips's Mineralogy, and had 

 been engaged for years in collecting and digesting the materials. He 

 had secured the donation of the inedited papers of Mr. Phillips, and 

 also those of the late Professor Cleaveland, which he had carefully 

 examined and collated ; and his own collections for the republication 

 were very extensive. 



In addition to his mineralogical studies, Mr. Alger was much inter- 

 ested in the advancement of the mechanical arts. He invented an 

 improvement in shrapnel, by which the shell was made to explode 

 with greater certainty and with more deadly effect ; and he was 

 engaged with officers of the army in testing the merits of his invention 

 when he was seized with the disease which suddenly terminated his 

 useful life. He died at Washington, on the 27th of November, 1863, 

 in the fifty-sixth year of his age. 



