ADVERTISEMENT, 



The scientific writings of James Smithson, the distinguished 

 founder of the Smithsonian Institution, have been collected and 

 are published in the present volume, in accordance with the 

 instructions of the Board of Regents. These memoirs were orig- 

 inally contributed to the " Transactions of the Royal Society of 

 London," of which Smithson was a member, between the years of 

 1791 and 1817, and to Thomson's "Annals of Philosophy," 

 between 1819 and 1825. They are twenty-seven in number, and 

 embrace a wide range of research, from the origin of the earth, 

 the nature of the colors of vegetables and insects, the analysis of 

 minerals and chemicals, to an improved method of constructing 

 lamps or of making coffee. Some of these papers were translated 

 into French by the author and others, and published in the " Jour- 

 nal de Physique, de Chimie, et d' Histoire Naturelle, etc." 



These writings of Smithson prove conclusively his scientific char- 

 acter and his claim to distinction as a contributor to knoys^ledge. 



Among the personal effects of the founder of the Institution 

 were several hundred manuscripts, besides a large collection of 

 scraps and notes on a great diversity of subjects, including history, 

 the arts, language, rural economy, construction of buildings, &c., 

 which unfortunately were destroyed by the fire at the Smithsonian 

 building in 1865. It is probable that Smithson also contributed 

 articles to other scientific and literary journals than those men- 

 tioned, but none have been found, though the leading English 

 periodicals of the day have been carefully examined for the pur- 

 pose. 



Appended to the writings of Smithson is a review of their 

 scientific character by Professor Walter R. Johnson, communicated 



