NATURE 



[Jan. 8, 1885 



THE LATE JOHN LAWRENCE SMITH 



'"THE following information relative to Dr. John Law- 

 *■ rence Smith of Louisville, U.S.A., who died on 

 October 12, 1883, in his sixty-fifth year, is abstracted 

 from a sketch of his life and work, prepared by his friend, 

 Prof. Silliman, at the request of the American Academy 

 of Sciences. 



John Lawrence Smith was born near Charleston, South 

 Carolina, on December 17, 1818. "Even as a child of 

 four years, and before he could read," says his friend, 

 Dr. Marvin, "he was familiar with the operations of 

 simple arithmetic ; at eight he was prepared for the study 

 of algebra, and at thirteen was studying the calculus." 

 At the age of seventeen (1836) he entered the University 

 of Virginia, and for two years devoted himself to the 

 study of chemistry, natural philosophy, and civil engi- 

 neering. For twelve months after leaving the Univeristy 

 he acted as assistant engineer on the Charleston and 

 Cincinnati railroad, but relinquished the post with a view 

 to the study of medicine. While still a student in 

 Charleston he made known to chemists (1839) the use of 

 potassium chromate as a reagent for distinguishing be- 

 tween the salts of barium and strontium ; and in the 

 same year he published a paper on a new method of 

 making permanent artificial magnets by galvanism. 



In 1840 Mr. Smith proceeded to his medical degree, 

 submitting as a graduation thesis an essay upon the com- 

 pound nature of nitrogen. His father being a well-to-do 

 merchant. Mr. Smith was able to continue his medical 

 studies ; for this purpose he travelled to Europe, and 

 spent his winters at Paris under Dumas, Orfila, Pouillet, 

 Despretz, Becquerel, Dufre'noy, and Elie de Beaumont, 

 and his summers at Giessen under Liebig. In 1842 ap- 

 peared his elaborate paper on " The Composition and Pro- 

 ducts of Distillation of Spermaceti," probably the first 

 extensiue work in organic chemistry undertaken by an 

 American chemist. In 1S43 he began medical practice, 

 though chemical research was more congenial to his taste ; 

 and, in fact, during the next four years, he found time to 

 contribute important work towards the improvement of 

 analytical methods in chemistry. At this time he also 

 acted as assayer for the State of South Carolina, studying 

 its marls, ores, and cotton-bearing soils. Able reports on 

 these subjects led to his selection by the Secretary of the 

 United States as professional adviser of the Sultan of 

 Turkey in the matter of the introduction into that country 

 ■of American methods for the culture of cotton. " Find- 

 ing, on his arrival in Turkey, that an associate proposed 

 to inaugurate the cultivation on a plan doomed to failure, 

 he was about to return to America, when he received 

 from the Turkish Government a commission to explore 

 the mineral resources of the country. He entered at 

 once, with his customary zeal and intelligence, upon the 

 work, and in the four years of his residence in the 

 Sultan's dominions, in spite of many vexatious restric- 

 tions, he opened up natural resources which have ever 

 since added an important item to the revenues of the 

 Porte. His memoir on emery (1850) was equally im- 

 portant, both from a scientific and economic stand-point. 

 Before his observations ' On the Geology and Mineralogy 

 of Emery,' made in Asia Minor, little was known of the 

 mode of occurrence of this useful mineral. The island of 

 Naxos had long been almost the only locality, and the 

 supply from this source was limited and the price exces- 

 sive, and no geologist had found an opportunity of study- 

 ing the mineral associations of emery or its relations to 

 corundum. Smith's sagacity as an observer, his originality 

 in discussing new methods of examination, his patience 

 and conscientious fidelity in executing his work, are all 

 conspicuous to the student of this memoir. From the 

 study of the mineralogical associations in which he found 

 the emery of Asia Minor, he felt convinced that the 

 search for like associations elsewhere would be rewarded 



by the discovery of emery or corundum. With this view 

 he addressed Prof. Silliman, requesting him to test the 

 correctness of his observations upon known localities of 

 corundum in the United States. The associate minerals 

 were immediately found and reported. Later on, Smith 

 had the opportunity of seeing the accuracy of his views 

 demonstrated at the emery mine of Chester, Hampden 

 County, Massachusetts, which Dr. Charles T. Jackson 

 had discovered by use of the key of its associate minerals, 

 as suggested by Smith, the locality having been before 

 regarded only as an iron mine." 



Weary of the life he led in Turkey, and irritated by the 

 obstacles thrown by the Turkish officials in the way of any 

 real mineralogical exploration of the country, Dr. Smith 

 resigned his appointment in 1850, and returned to 

 America. He married in 1852, and in the same year 

 succeeded to the chemical chair in the University of 

 Virginia, which he retained for one year ; it was at this 

 time that he published the method of determining the 

 alkalies in silicates which is now in general use. From 

 1854 to 1866 he was Professor of Chemistry at Louisville, 

 but finding the restraints of a professorship distasteful, he, 

 in the latter year, resigned the chair, and afterwards 

 devoted his scientific work almost wholly towards the 

 investigation of the chemical nature of meteorites, pub- 

 lishing nearly fifty papers on that subject. Having been 

 successful in collecting illustrations of no less than 250 

 falls, he was very anxious that the collection should be 

 kept together, and with this view he negotiated its sale 

 for 2000/. to Harvard College ; the news of the conclu- 

 sion of the purchase only reached him on the last day of 

 his life. Since his death the sum received from Harvard 

 College has been presented by his widow to the American 

 Academy of Sciences for the institution of a " J. Lawrence 

 Smith medal for researches on meteoric bodies." 



" Dr. Smith's personal character possessed a charm 

 which won all who came within the sunshine of his genial 

 nature. His sturdy manliness and integrity was com- 

 bined with an almost feminine gentleness. During the 

 years of the Civil War, while his affiliations and life-long 

 associations were inseparably united with his native 

 south, he deplored the sad conflict with a spirit bowed as 

 under a personal sorrow ; but none heard a word from 

 him which partook of bitterness or animosity, and no 

 shadow passed across the path of his old friendships." 



Dr. Smith had no children, but he founded and amply 

 endowed an orphan home in Louisville, his adopted city. 



For the last two or three years he was in delicate health, 

 owing to a chronic affection of the liver ; and on August 

 1, 18S3, a severe attack of the disease compelled him to 

 take to his bed, from which he never rose again. With- 

 out acute suffering he passed peacefully away on Friday, 

 October 12, at three in the afternoon. 



By his direction, his funeral was of the most simple 

 character and without an eulogy. His life closed as he 

 had lived, peacefully, with uncomplaining endurance of 

 suffering. His last words were: "Life has been very 

 sweet to me ; it comforts me. How I pity those to whom 

 memory brings no pleasure ! " 



THE NORTH AFGHAN BORDER TRIBES 



IN a paper on " Afghan Ethnology," published in 

 Nature, January 22, 1SS0, a comprehensive survey 

 was given by this writer of all the varied racial elements 

 in Afghanistan. Here it is proposed to deal exclusively 

 and somewhat more fully with the northern peoples lying 

 along and about the new boundary line proposed to be 

 laid down between the now conterminous Anglo-Indian 

 and Russian empires. Were the importance of ethno- 

 logical studies understood or recognised by British 

 statesmen, it would be needless to insist upon an accurate 

 knowledge of the tribal relations in this border-land 



