SKETCH OF JAMES CURTIS BOOTH. 121 



and silver, and the responsibility of managing so large amounts, 

 for which he was accountable in law to the full value, weighed 

 heavily and constantly on his mind, and told severely upon his 

 physical constitution, and, according to Mr Dubois, in his later 

 years a painful anxiety " seemed to be ineradicably seared into his 

 very life." His noticeable failure is traced by Mr. Dubois from 

 the great " wastages " of 1872, together with subsequent difficul- 

 ties in the recoinage of seventeen millions of our gold coin in 

 1873. Prof. Booth himself wrote upon this subject in a private 

 letter in October, 1887 : " The whole truth is that the constantly 

 increasing business of the Mint beyond its own capacity for bull- 

 ion storage has been increasingly weighing down my anxious 

 thoughts for its safety, and you may add to that the consciousness 

 that I was personally responsible for every ounce of bullion re- 

 ceived, and then you will readily perceive sufficient ground for a 

 constant anxious care, which I sometimes imagined to be as the 

 square or cube of the extra quantity of bullion constantly poured 

 in. . . . It was that constant and constantly augmenting ounce- 

 for-ounce responsibility that finally affected my mind, and I rather 

 think broke me down. I went home quite sick from the Mint 

 early in April, and lay on my back for about three months. I 

 suppose that such a statement will be quite sufficient to explain 

 my present position. I am glad to say that I had sufficient strength 

 to resign from my place in the Mint " (he resigned in August, 1887, 

 after thirty-nine years of service), " although no one is yet ap- 

 pointed to take my place. However, I do not go more than once 

 a week to the Mint, and shall be glad when the string of union is 

 severed. . . . From my age, over seventy-seven, I hardly expect 

 restoration of full strength, and am satisfied with Avhat Provi- 

 dence designs." His successor was not appointed when he died. 



Prof. Booth had a variety of side-pursuits, and was especially 

 fond of linguistic studies, among which he took a particular in- 

 terest in phonetics, short-hand writing, and the reform of English 

 orthograxjhy. He regarded phonography as important in element- 

 ary education, and thought it should be required as an essential 

 branch. Having mastered Pitman's Phonography, he perceived 

 the defective character of the text-books on the subject, and him- 

 self published an elementary work upon it in 1849 — the Phono- 

 graphic Instructor. The Instructor was republished, with a key, 

 in 1850 and in 1856. The book was a successful one. 



Most of Prof, Booth's writings bore upon the special field of 

 his studies and his work. Having become a member of the Amer- 

 ican Philosophical Society in 1839, he, in connection with Prof. 

 Martin H. Boy^, communicated to the eighth volume of its trans- 

 actions, new series, a paper on the Conversion of Benzoic Acid 

 into Hippuric Acid. A considerable number of the reports of 



