EDITOR'S TABLE. 



629 



was an excellent representation of 

 American chemists from all parts of 

 the country, the exercises were spirited 

 and appropriate, and the entire pro- 

 ceedings vindicated the excellent judg- 

 ment of the committee who had made 

 the arrangements. 



The sessions were held in the new 

 high-school huilding, and its large hall 

 was crowded with strangers and citi- 

 zens. Prof. Croft read a brief address 

 on the character of Pbiestley, which 

 was marked by a broad appreciation 

 of his strong and many- sided traits. 

 The subject, however, was much too 

 large for the time given to it, and the 

 sketch had the effect of awakening 

 more interest than it gratified. The 

 speaker apologized for his performance 

 on account of the short time that had 

 been allowed him to prepare it, and it 

 is to be hoped that he will be enabled 

 to give it greater fullness before publi- 

 cation in the volume which will em- 

 body the proceedings. 



Prof. Horsford read several manu- 

 script letters of Dr. Priestley belong- 

 ing to the Massachusetts Historical 

 Society, and not hitherto published. 

 They were written in this country, to 

 a friend, and are valuable as disclosing 

 his opinions concerning questions of 

 American politics, in which he took no 

 public part. They were written with 

 terseness, point, and vigor, and dis- 

 played an independence of spii-it and 

 an acuteness of observation and reflec- 

 tion that elicited the cordial applause 

 of the audience who listened to them. 

 Prof. Croft had alluded to a rumor, on 

 the authority of the French chemist, 

 Dumas, that Priestley died of poison ; 

 but he had been unable to find any 

 verification or explanation of it. One 

 of the letters read by Prof. Horsford 

 threw light upon the matter, as Dr. 

 Priestley wrote to his friend that the 

 ingredient found in the flour used by 

 the family turned out to be, not arsenic, 

 but tartar-emetic. 



Prof. Sterry Hunt gave an interest- 



ing address on the progress of theoreti- 

 cal chemistry since the time of Priest- 

 ley, in which, after an acute and in- 

 structive analysis of the influence of 

 Lavoisier in giving effect to Priestley's 

 discovery and laying the foundation of 

 modern chemical philosophy, he went 

 on to trace the successive modifications 

 of theory, the growth of the unitary 

 system, and the fundamental ideas of 

 the chemical science now generally re- 

 ceived. Prof. Hunt's statement waa 

 deficient, in that it did not recognize 

 the share that the speaker had himself 

 taken in promoting the new views, 

 but, aside from this, it was a remark- 

 ably clear and instructive presentation, 

 in a narrow compass, of a subject not 

 easy of popular exposition. 



Dr. J. Lawrence Smith read a val- 

 uable essay on the general progress of 

 chemistry as applied to the arts during 

 the last hundred years, which was full 

 of interesting information, and was lis- 

 tened to with close attention by a large 

 audience. The relation of the indus- 

 tries o"f the world to the work of the 

 laboratory was skillfully treated and 

 vividly delineated. 



In the cemetery of Northumber- 

 land, situated upon an eminence back 

 of the town, and commanding a most 

 beautiful view of the river and moun- 

 tain scenery, rest the remains of Priest- 

 ley, marked only by a simple tomb- 

 stone. The strangers present in town, 

 accompanied by many of the citizens, 

 visited the grave at the close of the 

 first day's proceedings, and there lis- 

 tened to an eloquent and appreciative 

 eulogy of the illustrious man by Presi- 

 dent Coppee, of Lehigh University. 



The public exercises were fitly con- 

 cluded, on August 1st, by a most inter- 

 esting address from Prof. Silliman, on 

 the progress of chemistry in this coun- 

 try since the time of Priestley. The 

 son of one of the eminent pioneers of 

 the science on this side of the Atlantic, 

 Prof. Silliman has been a student of the 

 subject from his boyhood, there being, 



