Alexander Smith 29 



ALEXANDER SMITH. 



Edinburgh, Scotland, 1865. Edinburgh, Scotland, Sept. 9, 1922. 



From Edinburgh, Scotland, his birthplace, comes the announcement 

 of the death of Professor Alexander Smith, a distinguished and honored 

 member of our Academy, lately head of the department of chemistry at 

 Columbia University in New York. 



About three years ago while addressing a class he was stricken 

 with a fainting spell caused by the fatal malady. Shortly afterward 

 he underwent operation for tumor of the stomach. The hoped for re- 

 covery with restoration to health did not come. He suffered intense 

 depression and was an invalid from that time on. While the termina- 

 tion, on September 9, 1922, of the long and insidious illness which 

 clouded his latter days was not unexpected, his loss is a heavy one for 

 chemistry. 



Alexander Smith, son of a well known musician of Edinburgh, had 

 the advantage of the best chemical training available in Europe during 

 his student days. He received the degree B.Sc. at the University of 

 Edinburgh in 1886; the Ph.D. degree at the University of Munich, as a 

 student of the master organic chemist, Adolph Von Baeyer, in 1889, 

 and during 1890 served as assistant in chemistry in the University of 

 Edinburgh. 



Thus splendidly equipped for the work of a teacher of chemistry 

 Smith came in the fall of 1891 to the professorship of chemistry in 

 Wabash College at Crawfordsville, Indiana. He soon became identified 

 with the science organizations of the State and was elected to member- 

 ship in the Indiana Academy of Science at the December meeting 1891. 

 During the years following he contributed much to the success of the 

 annual meetings of the Academy, especially in the chemistry-physics 

 section, through forceful discussion and through presentation of papers 

 concerning his researches on 1:3 and 1:4 di-ketones, syntheses by means 

 of potassium cyanide, and the constitution of calomel vapor. 



Alexander Smith was a gentleman of polished manner, pleasing 

 address and striking personality. As those who knew him will recollect, 

 his clear and sparkling eye constituted a very conspicuous and charac- 

 teristic feature. 



His election to Fellowship in the Academy occurred in 1893 and our 

 records show that he remained active until 1908 when his name was 

 placed on the non-resident list of members, he having been called from 

 Wabash College to a professorship in the University of Chicago in 1894. 



The bibliography contains a long list of titles of published re- 

 searches and text books. The researches on sulphur and on vapor pres- 

 sure in 1912 won for him the Keith Prize from the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh. 



Smith's sphere of influence in chemistry was perhaps widest as a 

 great teacher and as author of pre-eminent text-books, such as his 

 "Introduction to General Inorganic Chemistry", "General Chemistry 

 for Colleges", "A Laboratory Outline of General Chemisti/". and others. 



"Proc. 38th Meeting, 1922 (1923)." 



