THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



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James Smithson, the founder 



^^ __, '^^ ^^6 Institution which bears his 



"^^^^^ ^// Y M l)®\flil^)' m name and will perpetuate his ineia- 



><::— J '^QT^ cry, was a native of London, Eng- 



land. In his v>'ill he states that 

 he was the son of Hugh, first Duke 

 of Northumberland, and Eliza- 

 beth, heiress of the Hungerfords, 

 of Audley, and niece of Charles 

 the Proud, Duke of Somerset. He 

 was educated at Oxford, where he 

 took an honorary degree in 1786. 

 He went under the name of James 

 Lewis Macie until a few years after 

 he had left the university, when 

 he took that of Smithson, the 

 feimily name of the Northumherlands. He does not appear to have had any 

 fixed home in England, but travelled much on the continent, occasionally staying 

 a year or two in Paris, Berlin, Florence, etc. He died at Genoa, in 1828, at an 

 advanced age. He is said by Sir Davies Gilbert, President of the Royal Society, 

 to have rivalled the most expert chemists in minute analysis ; and, as an instance 

 of his skill, it is mentioned that, happening to observe a tear gliding down a 

 lady's cheek, he endeavored to catch it on a crystal vessel ; that half of the drop 

 escaped, but having preserved the other half, he submitted it to close analysis, 

 and discovered in it several salts. He contributed a number of valuable papers 

 to the Royal Society, and also to the Annals of Philosophy, on chemistry, 

 mineralogy, and geology. His scientific reputation was founded on these 

 branches, though from his writings he appears to have studied and reflected upon 

 almost every department of knowledge. He was of a sensitive, retiring disposi- 

 tion; was never married — appeared ambitious of making a name for himself. 



