JAMES SMITHSON AND HIS BEQUEST. 7 



Prof. Walter K. Johnson has made the following remarks respecting 

 Smithsou : 



" It ai)pear8 from his published works that his was not the character of 

 a mere amateur of science. He was an active and industrious laborer 

 in the most interesting and important branch of research — mineral 

 chemistry. A contemxjorar^^ of Davy and of Wollaston, and a corre- 

 spondent of Black, Banks, Thomson, and a host of other names re- 

 nowned in the annals of science, it is evident that his labors had to un- 

 dergo the scrutiny of those who could easily have detected errors, had 

 any of a serious character been committed. His was a capacity by no 

 means contemptible for the operations and expedients of the laboratory. 

 He felt the importance of every hcli) afforded by a simplification of meth- 

 ods and means of research, and the use of minute quantities and accu- 

 rate determinations in conducting his inquiries." 



Sinithson says in one of his papers, " chemistry is yet so new a science," 

 what wo know of it bears so small a i)roportion to what we arc igno- 

 rant of; our knowledge in every department of it is so incomplete, con- 

 sisting so entirely of isolated points, thinly scattered, like lurid specks on 

 a vast field of darkness, that no researches can bo undertaken without 

 producing some facts leading to consequences which extend beyond the 

 boundaries of their immediate object."* 



Many of these " lurid speclis " in the vast field of darkness of which 

 Smithson spolce so feelingly, have, Prof. Johnson observes, " since his 

 days of a(jtivity expanded into broad sheets of light. Chemistry has 

 assume d its rank among the exact sciences. Methods and instruments 

 of analysis unknown to the age of Smithson have come into familiar 

 use anion;: chemists. These may liave rendered less available for the 

 present pui poses of science than they otherwise might have been, a por- 

 tion of the amilysis and other researches of our author. The same may, 

 however, be said of nearly every other writer of his day." 



Although his priucii)al labors were in analytical chemistry, he distin- 

 guished himself by his researches in mineralogy and crystallography, in 

 all his work exhibiting the most careful and minute attention to accu- 

 racy .t In his second published paper, he observes : " It may be proper 

 to say that the experiments have been stated precisely as they turned 

 out, and have not been in the least degree bent to the system." 



That he pursued his investigations in a philosophic si^irit, and with 

 proper methods, is evident from the favor with which his contributions 

 to the scientific societies and transactions of the day were received by 

 bis contemporaries, and the fact that the results he reached are still 

 accepted as scientific truths.^ 



*A chemical luialysia of soiuo calamines. Smilhsonian M>8ceU. Coll., No. 327, p.2G. 



t He carefully noted on tbo margins of his books mistakes in grammar or orthography, 

 and frequently corrected erroneons statements or improper references in the indexes. 



t An account of some of Smithson's experiments and copies of his notes on minerals 

 and rocks are given in a paper on the works and character of James Smithson, by Dr. 

 J. R. McD. Irby. Smithsonian Miscell Collections, No. 327, 1879, p. 143. 



