1892.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 149 



College, an assemblage of fossils much like that reported by Mr. 

 Darton in Orange County.'" 



U. S. Geological Sckvey, May, 1892. 



The following papers were then read : — 



Notes on the Discovery of Chloroform. 



BY OLIVER p. HUBBARD. 



In a lecture before the Academy March 21, 1892, on the " Con- 

 tributions of Organic Chemistry to Modern Medicine," it was stated 

 " that Leibig was the discoverer of chloroform." This gave rise to 

 some discussion and to counter-statements that invalidated the claim 

 for Liebig. 



It is now at least sixty-one years since chloroform was discovered, 

 and there were three chemists to whom the discovery has been 

 credited by their friends and in support of their own claims, viz : — 

 Gutlirie in America, 

 Soubeiran in France. 

 Liebig in Germany. 



In this long period the evidence of priority has become somewhat 

 obscured. 



As I have had a personal knowledge of the American title to 

 this claim, I have been invited by the Academy to give a narrative 

 of the facts for record in its Transactions, and I respectfully present 

 the following. 



In August, 1831, I entered the laboratory of Yale College as 

 Professor Silliman's assistant, and remained five years. 



Professor Silliman had received from Dr. Samuel Guthrie, of 

 Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., an ingenious self-taught manufacturing 

 chemist, a box of his numerous products. At the beginning of 

 the chemical course in October I opened the box, which contained 

 chlorate of potash in larger and more beautiful crystals than any 

 I have to this day seen, numerous varieties of percussion, water- 

 proof priming-powder, molasses from potatoes, etc., and several 

 bottles of chloroform distillate in alcohol (chloric ether). I believe 

 I was the first person to repeat Guthrie's process in the course of 

 lecture illustrations in 1831, and before the labors of Soubeiran and 

 Liebig. 



In 1881, Mr. 0. Guthrie, of Chicago, a grandson of Dr. Guthrie, 

 at the request of the "Jefferson County Historical Society," N. Y., 

 prepared " Memoirs of Dr. Samuel Guthrie and the History of the 

 Discovery of Chloroform," a pamphlet of 35 pages. In ihis he 

 has given all the documentary history connected with the work of 

 Soubeiran and Liebig, from the French and German journals. He 

 has also collected all the facts and the records in volumes 21 and 22 



1 Bull. Geol. See, Am., vol. I, April, 1890, p. 344. 



