130 



LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



out her inmost secrets. He was one of those men by whom it 

 seems as if Nature loves to be cross-examined. Whether his 

 questions pertained to the most familiar phenomena of every-day 

 life or the most complex combinations in the laboratory, they are 

 all marked by the qualities of the author's mind, acuteness in 

 research, a clear appreciation of the logic of science, and an enthu- 

 siasm for truth irrespective of its utilitarian results. During the 

 period of his residence at Princeton, he was a voluminous contribu- 

 tor to the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, an 

 association already famous in the history of science by the names 

 of Franklin and Rittenhouse to which his own name was now to 

 be added. 



On December 3, 1846, Henry was chosen the first Secretary of 



e newly organized Smithsonian Institution. The work of the 

 remaining years of his long life is so intimately connected with this 

 institution that the organization must be described to understand 

 ^ v the man. The inducement is all the stronger to do this because 

 there is probably no foundation for the promotion of science or 

 original research which shows so many features interesting by 

 "> their mysterious character and by the novelty of the idea. 



James Smithson, a private English gentleman of fortune and 

 scientific tastes, and a chemist of sufficient note to be elected a 

 'ellow of the Royal Society, led a comparatively retired life, and 

 died unmarried, in 1829. He does not seem to have left any near 

 relatives except a nephew. On opening his will it was found to 

 be short and simple. Except an annuity to his servant, he left 

 the nephew, for his life, the whole income from his property, and 

 the property itself to the nephew's children should he leave any. 

 In case of the death of the nephew without leaving a child or 

 ^ children, the whole property was bequeathed "to the United States 

 of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion 

 of knowledge among men" 



Probably few men have ever written a clause so well fitted as 

 this to excite a curiosity which can never be gratified. The views 

 and motives of the writer in making this provision are involved 



