706 TECHNICAL CHEMISTRY 



ration of compressed beef and parched wheat-grits," which found some use at the 

 time of the Civil War, and his name is also attached to the preparation of " acid 

 phosphate," so commonly used with summer beverages. 1 



The development of the mineral resources of our country has been due largely 

 to those who from their knowledge of chemistry were able to recognize the com- 

 mercial value of the natural deposits in the vicinity of their homes. This has been 

 conspicuously the case with the great fertilizer industry of the South, and espe- 

 cially so in South Carolina, where the names of Charles Upham Shepard (1804- 

 86) and St. Julien Ravenel (1819-82) are recognized as those of pioneers in that 

 important branch of chemical industry. 



To quote from Silliman again, and he is always an acceptable authority, "No 

 observation or original research of Dr. Shepard has been fruitful of so much good 

 in its consequences as his discovery of the deposits of phosphate of lime in the 

 Eocene marl of South Carolina and the distinct recognition of its great value for 

 agriculture." 2 It was Dr. Ravenel, however, whose experiments made it possible 

 to transform these phosphate rocks into commercial fertilizers, and of him the 

 younger Shepard wrote in 1882: "Well might this community erect a public 

 monument in honor of the man to whom preeminently is due the inauguration of 

 that phosphate industry which has proven of such incalculable value to ourselves 

 and others. As the statue of Berzelius adorns beautiful Stockholm, let us com- 

 memorate [similarly] the founder of Charleston's greatest industry." It may be 

 added that Dr. Ravenel differed from the agricultural chemists of his time in 

 devoting greater attention to the physiological phases of the application of fer- 

 tilizers to plants than to the mere chemistry of the subject; this was naturally 

 due to his early training in medicine. 3 



It would lead me too far from chemistry, perhaps, to discuss the work of the 

 younger Shepard (1842- ) in successfully introducing tea culture into the 

 United States, but his farm in Summerville, South Carolina, is a monument to 

 the application of his chemical knowledge to a new industry, and well may his fel- 

 low countrymen be proud of the results. 



It is desirable to mention at this place the remarkable successes achieved by a 

 small band of chemists who spent the four years of our Civil War in their south- 

 land. George Washington Raines (1817-98), John Le Conte (1818-91), Joseph 

 Le Conte (1823-91), and John William Mallett (1832- ) are among the more 

 conspicuous names that occur to me. It was Raines who erected at Augusta, 

 Georgia, the Confederate po wder- works , which at the close of the war were re- 

 garded " as among the best in the world." 4 



The Confederate Government appointed John Le Conte to the superintend- 

 ency of the extensive niter-works established in Columbia, South Carolina, 

 which place he retained during the war. 5 Joseph Le Conte, a younger brother, 

 served as chemist to the Confederate laboratory for the manufacture of medicines 

 in 1862-63, and also in a similar capacity to the niter and mining bureau in 

 1864-65. Professor Mallett was in charge of the ordnance bureau of the Con- 



1 A sketch of his career prepared by Charles L. Jackson appeared in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Science, vol. xxvm, p. 34, 1903. 



2 American Chemist, vol. v, p. 96, 1874. 



3 Two memorial pamphlets of Dr. Ravenel have been published. One, entitled 

 InMemoriam, St. Julien Ravenel, M.D. (9 pp.), is a reprint of an editorial from the 

 Charleston News and Courier of March 18, 1882. The other, entitled Dr. St. 

 Julien Ravenel, is a memorial published by the Agricultural Society of South 

 Carolina, Charleston (54 pp.). 



4 He published in pamphlet form a History of the Confederate Powder Works 

 (Augusta, 1882). 



6 Biographical Memoirs, National Academy of Sciences, vol. in, p. 369. 



