METOALF, THERON. 



METHODISTS. 



487 



from the roasted ore, and unroasted silver-bearing 

 ores or regains may be decomposed by this solution 

 containing chlorides of copper. The metallic silver 

 is obtained perfectly free from base metals by the 

 precipitation with copper, the silver left undissolved 

 in the residues yielding a much purer amalgam than 

 if the roasted ore had not been previously treated 

 with the bath. Gold, if present in the ore, is left in 

 the best condition, either to be chlorinated or to be 

 amalgamated with the chloride of silver remaining 

 in the residues. By the removal of the base metals 

 before amalgamation a saving of mercury is effected. 

 A great saving of salt is effected through the recov- 

 ery by evaporation of the chlorides usually thrown 

 away in the Waste liquors. In treating simple ores 

 of silver, or ores of silver containing but little-base 

 metal, as lead or zinc, the costly operation of roasting 

 with salt may be dispensed with, and the unexpen- 

 fiive protochloride of iron may be used to produce 

 the chloride of copper necessary for their treatment. 



METCALF, Hon. THERON, LL. D., died in 

 Boston, Mass., November 13, 1875; He was 

 born in Franklin, Mass., on the 16th of Octo- 

 ber, 1784, and educated at Brown University, 

 where he graduated in 1804. He was admitted 

 to the bar in 1808, and established himself at 

 Dedham, Mass., where he remained for thirty 

 years. During this time he added much to his 

 reputation, not only by his able practice of his 

 profession, but also by a number of legal works 

 which proved peculiarly valuable on account of 

 the thoroughness, accuracy, and clearness, that 

 characterized all his writings. In 1823, he pro- 

 duced a digest of the decisions of the Supreme 

 Court of Massachusetts. He has also been one of 

 the editors of the United States Digest, and the 

 author of the first half of it, which is unequaled 

 by anything of the kind in America. In 1820 

 he published an edition of Yelverton's Reports 

 with notes, which won him a high reputation, 

 and he subsequently prepared for the benefit 

 of his pupils at Dedham a remarkable series of 

 papers on the law of contracts, which were 

 published in the American Jurist. He was the 

 editor of the Statutes of Massachusetts, and of 

 editions of Maule and Selwyn's Reports, Rus- 

 sell on Crimes, and Starkie on Evidence. While 

 at Dedham, Mr. Metcalf once or twice repre- 

 sented the county of Norfolk in the State Sen- 

 ate. In 1839 he was appointed reporter of the 

 Supreme Court, when or soon after which he 

 removed to Boston ; and in 1848 he was ap- 

 pointed by Governor Briggs one of the justices 

 of the Supreme Court. He filled this position 

 for seventeen years. Owing to the effects of 

 advancing years, he resigned his office in 1865, 

 ending more than half a century of professional 

 labor and authorship. 



METHODISTS. The Methodist Almanac for 

 18f 6 gives the following general summary of 

 Methodists throughout the world: itinerant 

 ministers, 27,591 ; local preachers, 61,474; lay 

 members, 4,189,105. Thirteen different de- 

 nominations of Methodists in the United States 

 have an aggregate of 20,453 itinerant ministers, 

 24,384 local preachers, 3,173,229 lay members. 



I. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. The fol- 

 lowing is a summary of the statistics of this 

 Church, as given in the "Minutes of the An- 

 nual Conferences " for 1875 : 



