Prfparatorv to RrsnARCH CARnnR 81 



tjucnt and valuable contributions . . . upon various scientilic sub- 

 jects ■■ *"^ to The Sanititry News. 



In 1SS4 he served in Lansing as secretary of the Citizens' Law 

 and Order League. Since 1882 lie had been connected with the 

 United States Weather Bureau there. For one year he was the 

 weather observer, and had "continued [his] readings in that de- 

 partment.'" He was "familiar with all the details" of the work 

 and " with the general plan of work of the U. S. Signal Service,'-" 

 and he edited the bureau's meteorological data for the year 1883, 

 a task which did not reach the printer until 1885. 



He was saving his money to enter the University of Michigan 

 the following September. "By that time," he told his mother, 

 " I shall have a pretty full knowledge of German, and some 

 additional knowledge of Botany, — all of which will be useful." 

 He had kept Professor Spalding advised on his studies. One of 

 the reasons he gave why he liked Duchartre's Elements de Bota- 

 uique was the fullness and usefulness of the foot-note references 

 to " continental authorities." As he read, he said, " I am more 

 than ever surprised at the amount of original research done by the 

 Germans. The authority for seemingly three-fourths of the newer 

 statements is some German paper or monograph." 



In August 1884, at an eastern publisher's request, he criticised 

 a book on physiology and hygiene. In four pages of criticism, 

 Smith cited conclusions by Galton, Denton, Huxley, Hartley, 

 Miquel, Parke, Buck, von Pettenkofer, Koch, and others. Promi- 

 nent among his points was the subject of disinfectants and germi- 

 cides. But that sanitary science had not won him away completely 

 from botany was evident throughout the year. When others urged 

 that he could make more money from law, medicine, real estate, 

 or business pursuits, Smith unvaryingly replied that already he 

 had "chosen, and given a good many thousand hours of hard 

 study to the preliminaries " of natural history, and he was " not 

 inclined to change [his] plans." 



January 26, 1883, he began a study which was to last some two 

 years, and more. It was to be an economic, and not scientific, 

 survey of the influence of civic cleanliness in lowering the death 



**^ Letter from editors G. P. Brown and John K. Allen, May 13, 1886 concerning 

 his work for Sani/ary News. 



"* Letter, Smith to Prof. M. W. Harrington, Detroit Observatory, Ann Arbor, 

 June 14, 1885 concerning work with the weather bureau for past three years. 



