JAMES MASON CRAFTS. 803 



On June 13, 1868, he married Miss Clemence Haggerty of New 

 York, who died in 1912. He is survived by four daughters: Mrs. 

 Russell S. Codman, Mrs. Gordon K. Bell, Miss Elizabeth Crafts and 

 Miss Clemence Crafts. 



Although much of a traveler during the early part of his life, toward 

 the end he divided his time between his Boston residence on Common- 

 wealth Avenue and his beautiful country place at Ridgefield, Connecti- 

 cut, where he had a small laboratory well fitted for his work, and 

 where he enjoyed quiet and seclusion, always more to his taste than 

 publicity or the whirl of city life. He retained his \igorous mental 

 powers to the end, although somewhat restricted in physical acti\'ity 

 by illness during his last few years. His well-rounded and useful life 

 of over se^'enty-eight years came to an end at Ridgefield on June 20, 

 1917, when he succumbed to a sudden, painful illness of the heart. 



As already stated, his scientific work divides itself naturally into 

 two groups of researches, namely, those in organic and those in 

 physical chemistry. His earliest published contributions to knowl- 

 edge concerned the organic compounds of silicon, upon which he pub- 

 lished an interesting and important paper in 1865. This was followed 

 by work upon the arsenic and arsenious esters, which appeared in 1871. 

 Six years afterwards, with Professor Charles Friedel, he published in 

 volume 84 of the Comptes Rendus the first notice of the method of 

 organic synthesis by means of the chloride of aluminum, which has 

 had such a remarkable effect upon the growth of organic chemistry. 

 In the succeeding years paper after paper from these two eminent 

 collaborators appeared, amplifying their great discovery. In 1880 

 Professor Crafts's work upon accurate thermometry showing the 

 peculiar hysteresis effects in glass, which must be considered in any 

 accurate determination of temperature by the mercury thermometer, 

 began to appear. At about this time also he published valuable 

 papers in collaboration with Professor Friedel and others concerning 

 vapor densities of the halogens at high temperatures. 



His work on thermometry led to the determination of new fixed 

 points to which the thermometric scale might be referred; and his 

 study of the boiling points of naphthalene and of mercury attained a 

 degree of accuracy little short of amazing, considering the state of 

 these matters before they had come under the scrutiny of his insight 

 and patient experimentation. Later in Boston, from 1900 almost to 

 the time of his death, he devoted himself to chemical research, espe- 

 cially to the study of organic catalytic reactions in concentrated solu- 

 tions, feeling that such reactions had not received the attention which 



