io The Smithsonian Institution 



time seemed to rest, of his having adopted the name of 

 Smithson in circumstances where a son should have re- 

 mained silent. 



We have also an authentic contemporary portrait of him in 

 the dress of an Oxford student, here reproduced, which, it is 

 interesting to observe, confirms the age thus given, by repre- 

 senting him as a mere youth. 



Nothing material is remembered of his life at the college, 

 except a tradition that he was the best chemist and miner- 

 alogist of his year, though in his journal, when but a youth 

 of nineteen, he gives a description of a geological tour in 

 1 784 through Oban, Staffa, and the western islands, in com- 

 pany with De St. Fond, " the celebrated French philosopher," 

 and the Italian Count Andrioni, in which he carried on ob- 

 servations on the methods of mining and manufacturing pro- 

 cesses, made with all the minuteness which the conditions of 

 the journey permitted. The journal indicates that the tour at 

 that time was undertaken, if not at any considerable risk, yet 

 not without a considerable amount of privation and self- 

 denial, such as would not be met by the modern traveler, and 

 shows that he was far more occupied with science than with 

 the ordinary pleasures of so youthful a tourist We learn 

 also that the young student was noted for diligence, applica- 

 tion, and good scholarship, attracting attention by his pro- 

 ficiency in chemistry, then a novel study, while his vacations 

 were ordinarily passed in such excursions as that just referred 

 to, and devoted to the collection of minerals and ores, which 

 it was his favorite occupation to analyze. At Oxford, then, 

 at a time when the study of physical science was almost 

 unknown in the University, he appears to have already 

 conceived that devotion to scientific research which charac- 

 terized all his future life. 



He was graduated at Pembroke College, with the degree 



