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THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



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James Smithson, the foaiidei 

 of the Institution which bears his 

 name and will perpetuate his mem- 

 ory, was a native of London, Eng- 

 hind. In his will he states that 

 he was the son of Hugh, first L)uke 

 of Northumberland, and Eliza- 

 beth, heiress of the Ilungerfords, 

 of Audley, and niece of Charles 

 the Proud, Duke of Somerset. He 

 was educated at Oxford, where he 

 took an honorary degree in 1786. 

 He went under the name of James 

 Lewis 3Iacie until a few years after 

 he had left the university, when 

 he took that of Smithson, the 

 fomily name of the Nnrthumberlands. He does not appear to have had any 

 fixed home in England, but travelled much on the continent, occasionally staying 

 a year or two in Paris, Berlin, Florence, etc. He died at Genoa, in 1828, at an 

 advanced age. He is said by Sir Davies Gilbert, President of the Royal Society, 

 fo have rivalled the most expert chemists in minute analysis; and, as an instanop 

 of his skill, it is mentioned that, happening to observe a tear gliding down a 

 lady's cheek, he endeavored to catch it on a crystal vessel; that half of the drop 

 escaped, but having preserved the other half, he submitted it to close analysis, 

 and discovered in it several salts. He contributed a number of valuable papers 

 to the Koyal Society, and also to the Annals of Philosophy, on chemistry, 

 mineralogy, and geology. His scientific reputation was founded on these 

 branches, though from his writings he appears to have studied and reflected upon 

 almost every department of knowledge. He was of a sensitive, retiring disposi- 

 tion ; was never married — appeared ambitious of making a name for himself, 

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