

SMITH, JAMES L. 



Dec. 16, 1818; died in Louisville, Ky., Oct. 12, 

 1883. He received a classical education at 

 Charleston College, and then studied at the 

 University of Virginia. Afterward, having 

 chosen medicine for a profession, he received 

 his degree from the Medical College of South 

 Carolina. This course he supplemented by 

 three years' study in Europe. In 1841 his 

 first memoir, " On the Means of detecting 

 Arsenic in the Human Body," marked him 

 as an investigator of the first rank. He be- 

 gan the practice of medicine in Charleston, 

 and at the same time delivered an important 

 series of lectures on toxicology. Soon after, 

 he was appointed by the State of South Caro- 

 lina to assay the bullion then coming into 

 commerce from the gold-fields of Georgia and 

 North and South Carolina. His attention was 

 also directed at the time to the marl-beds in 

 the vicinity of Charleston. His investigations 

 on the value of these deposits for agricultural 

 purposes were among the earliest scientific 

 contributions on this subject. During these 

 years he prepared a report on u The Meteo- 

 rological Conditions, Character of Soils, and 

 Cultures, affecting the Growth of Cotton. 1 ' 



In 1846 Mr. Buchanan (afterward President), 

 at the request of the Sultan of Turkey, recom- 

 mended Dr. Smith as a competent authority to 

 suggest methods for the cultivation of cotton 

 in the Turkish provinces. On reaching the 

 East, he found the scheme somewhat im- 

 practicable, and subsequently accepted the ap- 

 pointment of mining engineer from the Sul- 

 tan. In this capacity his services were of the 

 greatest value, and the Turkish Government 

 still derives an important portion of its rev- 

 enue from his discoveries of ores and coal. 

 Chief among these was that of emery, whose 

 subsequent development .in this country is 

 largely due to the papers published by Dr. 

 Smith. "The Thermal Waters of Asia Mi- 

 nor " was likewise a subject to which he 

 devoted much attention while in the Turkish 

 employ. 



In iS51 he returned to the United States. 

 He devised the inverted microscope, whose 

 construction he had superintended while in 

 Paris. His appointment to the chair of Chemis- 

 try in the University of Virginia dates from 

 this period. While occupying this post, with 

 the aid of his assistant, George J. Brush (now of 

 the Sheffield Scientific School), he prepared an 

 extensive memoir on the "Re-examination of 

 American Minerals." It included examina- 

 tions, with analyses, of thirty-seven species, 

 "forming," says Prof. B. Silliman, "at that 

 time, the most important contributions yet 

 made by any American chemist." In 1854-'55 

 he accepted the professorship of Chemistry in 

 the Medical Department of the University of 

 Louisville, and settled there. Subsequently 

 he became President of the Louisville Gas- 

 Works, which he personally superintended. 



In 1867 he was one of the commissioners to 

 the Paris Exposition, and furnished for the 



SOUND-SIGNALS. 



719 



Government reports an able contribution on 



" The Progress and Condition of Several 1 .-- 

 partments of Industrial Chemistry." Again, 

 at Vienna, in 1873, he represented the United 

 States, and his report on "Chemicals and 

 Chemical Industries " supplements his excel- 

 lent work at the earlier exhibition. At the 

 Centennial held at Philadelphia in 1876, he 

 was one of the judges in the department re- 

 lating to chemical arts, and contributed a valu- 

 able paper on petroleum to the official reports. 



Of late years, his attention was devoted 

 very largely to the chemistry of meteorites, 

 and his collection of these celestial bodies is 

 probably not surpassed in this country. It 

 has recently become the property of Harvard 

 College. He was also occupied with the 

 separation of some of the rarer earths, and in 

 1878 he announced his discovery of the ele- 

 ment mosandrium. 



Prof. Smith was a member of many of the 

 learned societies in this country and abroad. 

 He was one of the original members of the 

 National Academy of Sciences, and in 1872 

 was the presiding officer of the American As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science. 

 The French Academy of Sciences elected him 

 a corresponding member in the department 

 of Mineralogy. His published papers were 

 very numerous; the more important of these 

 were collected and published by him, under 

 the title of " Mineralogy and Chemistry, Origi- 

 nal Researches" (Louisville, Ky.. 1873). 



SOUND-SIGNALS. The sound-signals generally 

 used to guide mariners, especially during fogs, 

 are, with certain modifications sirens, trump- 

 ets, steam-whistles, bell-boats, bell-buoys, 

 whistling-buoys, bells struck by machinery, 

 cannons fired by powder or gun-cotton, rock- 

 ets, and gongs. 



Gongs. Gongs are somewhat used on light- 

 ships, especially in British waters. They are 

 intended for use at close quarters. Leonce 

 Reynaud, of the French lighthouse service, has 

 given their mean effective range as barely 550 

 yards. They are of most use in harbors, short 

 channels, and like places where a long range 

 would be unnecessary. They have been used 

 but little in United States waters. The term 

 " effective range " is used here to signify the 

 actual distance at which, under the most un- 

 favorable circumstances, a signal can generally 

 be heard on board of a paddle-wheel steamer 

 in a heavy sea-way. 



Guns. The use of guns is not so great as it 

 once was. Instances are on record. in which 

 they were quite serviceable. Admiral Sir A. 

 Milne said he had often gone into Halifax har- 

 bor, in a dense fog like a wall, by the sound of 

 the Sambro fog-gun. But in the experiments 

 made by the "Trinity House" off Dungeness 

 in January, 1864, in calm weather, the report 

 of an eigh teen-pounder, with three pounds of 

 powder, was faint at four miles. Still, in the 

 Trinity House experiments of 1865, made in 

 light weather with a light gun, the report was 



