AND RESEARCHES OF JAMES SMITHSON. 125 



by the side of a single truth of nature. If he have con- 

 tributed his mite to the " increase " of knowledge ; if he 

 have diffused that knowledge for the benefit of "man ; and, 

 above all, if he have applied it to the useful, or even to the 

 ornamental purposes of life, he has laid not his family, not 

 his country, but the world of mankind under a lasting 

 obligation. 



As with societies, so with individuals occupying them- 

 selves with scientific pursuits, the estimation in which they 

 must be held, will ever depend on the amount, but especially 

 upon the quality of new published truths which they dis- 

 seminate. Hence we look primarily to the published works 

 of a scientific man for the evidences of what he has done 

 for science. 



They whose recollections of scientific works go back to 

 the first years of the present century, will have no difficulty 

 in judging how far the principle just stated will rank 

 James Smithson among the working scientific men of his 

 time. The transactions of the Royal Society of London, 

 and the scientific journals of the day, will, without reference 

 to other evidence, place us in a condition to solve this ques- 

 tion. 



But we are fortunately not left to these alone. In his 

 written journals, scientific notes, and more elaborate manu- 

 script papers on a great variety of topics, connected with 

 his tours of observation, and with his studies in numerous 

 departments, we witness the workings of a mind ever 

 active in its endeavors to elicit from the volume of nature 

 truths worthy to fix the attention of all intelligent beings. 

 Let us first recur to his printed works. 



1. In the Philosophical Transactions, vol. 93, is a paper 

 on the Chemical Analysis of some Calamines. Read November 

 18, 1802. 



In this paper the author describes calamine 1, from 

 Bleyburg in Carinthia; 2, from Somersetshire; 3, from 

 Derbyshire ; and 4, electrical calamine. 



In this essay the author remarks that " Chemistry is yet 

 so new a science; what we know of it bears so small a pro- 

 portion to what we are ignorant of; our knowledge in every 

 department of it is so incomplete, consisting so entirely of 

 isolated points, thinly scattered, like lurid specks on a vast 

 field of darkness, that no researches can be undertaken 

 without producing some facts leading to consequences 

 which extend beyond the boundaries of their immediate 

 object." 



