638 The Smithsonian Institution 



The authors of the various accounts of progress were well 

 known men of science, as follows : 



Geology, G. W. Hawes, T. S. Hunt, N. H. Darton, W J 

 McGee ; Mineralogy, G. W. Hawes, E. S. Dana ; Petrog- 

 raphy, G. P. Merrill ; Vulcanology and Seismology, C. G. 

 Rockwood, Jr. 



REPRINTS 



AN appropriate memorial of the honored founder of the In- 

 stitution is afforded by the republication of "The Scientific 

 Writings of James Smithson," extracted from the " Philosophi- 

 cal Transactions of the Royal Society of London," and from 

 " Thomson's Annals of Philosophy." Most of these papers are 

 now chiefly interesting as illustrating the character of one of 

 the benefactors of humanity. The paper entitled " A Chemi- 

 cal Analysis of Some Calamines " (1802) gives the proof that 

 one of the minerals formerly confounded under the name 

 calamine is a carbonate of zinc, while the other affords on 

 analysis silica and oxide of zinc. The former is now most 

 appropriately named smithsonite. The ingenious refutation 

 of Granville Penn's theory that the fossils found in Kirkdale 

 Cave were relics of the Noachian deluge gives an interest- 

 ing illustration of the state of geological opinion at the close 

 of the first quarter of this century. 



The scientific papers to which from time to time a wider 

 circulation has been given by their republication in the 

 Smithsonian Reports, have been sometimes selected as giv- 

 ing accounts of new and important discoveries, sometimes 

 as dealing with broad generalizations and correlations. 



A. Geikie's brilliant address on " Geological Change, and 

 Time" (1892) affords an admirably clear and comprehensive 

 view of the spirit and method of geological study. 



The important but difficult problems of the physics of the 



