Miscellaneous Intelligence. 143 



em wilds,* and during their wanderings in America they referred (o 

 the house of Gilmor. 



17. Dr. Samuel Guthrie, died near Sackets Harbor, on Thursday 

 evening, Oct. 19, aged sixty-six. The deceased was endowed with in- 

 tellectual powers of a high order, and was a devoted student of nature. 

 He was eminent in his profession, while engaged in its practice ; but 

 for many years previous to his death, had been occupied with other 

 pursuits. Being the original inventor of the percussion powder, and 

 the only manufacturer of that article in the United States, much of his 

 time had been employed in superintending its preparation — and while 

 thus occupied, he had on several occasions narrowly escaped with his 

 life, receiving severe injuries from which he never entirely recovered. 

 The honor of first procuring chloroform is shared by him in com- 

 mon with Soubeiran of France, and Liebig of Germany. These three 

 chemists without any concert of action, or knowledge of each other, 

 procured it about the same time. The question of absolute priority has 

 not been conclusively established, but a committee of the Medico- 

 Chirurgical Society, of Edinburgh, awarded to the deceased the credit 

 of having first published an account of its therapeutical effects as a 

 diffusible stimulus, in 1832. 



A love of the •natural sciences was predominant in his mind, and 

 he eagerly perused whatever had reference to facts, and demonstra- 

 tions as a basis ; entertaining at the same time, a feeling bordering on 

 disgust for mere assumptions, conjectures and speculations. Chemistry 

 was his favorite study, and he is chiefly known to the scientific world 

 through his contributions to this Journal,! and the " Scientific Amer- 

 ican ;" while in connection with Chloroform, his name is familiar in 

 both hemispheres. 



His reading was varied and extensive; embracing nearly every de- 

 partment of knowledge and literature, except works of fiction, for 

 which he had no taste. He was a constant and attentive reader of the 

 medical periodicals of the day, and took a lively interest in everything 

 pertaining to the progress or improvement of medical science. He 

 had suffered severely from bodily infirmities for years, but his mental 

 Vl gor continued to the last — and many who knew him, can bear testi- 

 mony to the kindness of his disposition, and the generosity of his na- 

 ture. — Sackets Harbor Observer. 



18. Dr. A. Goldfuss. — The death of Dr. Goldfuss, the author of the 

 great work on Fossils, has been recently announced. His age was 66. 



As mentioned to the writer by Mr. Gilmor. 



t The following is an enumeration of the articles contributed to this Journal by 

 Mr. Guthrie:— 



On a mode of obtaining chloric ether, volume xxi, 64, and xxii, 105. 



Vaporization of Mercury in the fumes of Nitric Ether, vol. xxi, .00. 



Chemical Products: Manufacture of Chlorate of Potash and a percussion pow- 

 der—Molasses from the Potato— Gunpowder— Pure Spirits of Turpentine, vol. 

 *xi ; pp. 92-94. 



Sugar from Potato Starch, vol. xxi, p. 284. * 



culminating Preparations—Purification of Oil of Turpentine— -San process for 

 manufacturing Gunpowder— Fulminic acid and Fulminates, vol. xxi, pp. 288-295. 



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