WAZ SCIENCE. 
gation into the meteorological conditions, 
character of soils, and culture affecting the 
growth of cotton. 
This work attracted considerable atten- 
tion, and in consequence he was regarded 
by James Buchanan, then Secretary of 
State, ‘‘as a suitable person to meet the call 
from the Sultan of Turkey for scientific aid 
in introducing into that kingdom American 
methods in the culture of cotton.”* On 
reaching Turkey he found that a commis- 
sion was already engaged on the problem of 
cotton culture, and as he was about to re- 
turn, the Turkish government invited him 
to report on the mineral resources of its 
territory. This work proved most valuable, 
and his discoveries of emery deposits in 
Asia Minor destroyed the monopoly then 
held by the Island of Naxos. 
In 1850 he returned to the United States, 
and for two years lectured on science in 
New Orleans, and was elected professor of 
chemistry in the University of Louisiana, 
an institution which he said ‘‘at present 
exists but in name.’”’ Two years later he 
was called to succeed Robert E. Rogers in 
the chair of chemistry in the University of 
Virginia, and then began with George J. 
Brush that splendid series of analyses of 
American minerals. Silliman said of them: 
“They settled many doubtful points and 
relegated into obscurity many worthless 
theories, while clearly establishing others. ”’} 
His stay at the University of Virginia 
was a short one, for at the end of the year 
he resigned and settled in Washington, 
where he became connected with the Smith- 
sonian Institution as chemist, also devoting 
some attention to agricultural chemistry 
for the Department of Agriculture. 
Louisville was the home of his wife’s 
family, and the chair of medical chemistry 
and toxicology in the University of Louis- 
ville, made vacant by the resignation of the 
* Silliman in Original Researches, etc., p. 27. 
t Idem, p. 30. 
[N.S. Von. X. No. 255. 
younger Silliman, was tendered to him in 
1854. That place was promptly accepted, 
and therefore Louisville became his home. 
For twelve years he continued his profes- 
sorial duties, and also manifested his fond- 
ness for practical chemistry by his accept- 
ance of the charge of the Louisville Gas 
Works, and by his establishing with the 
venerable Dr. Edward R. Squibb a labora- 
tory for the production of chemical reagents 
‘and the rarer pharmaceutical preparations. 
It was during the year that he was con- 
nected with the Smithsonian Institution 
that our Association met in Washington, 
and for that meeting he prepared his first 
memoir on meteorites, a subject to which 
he had become attracted by his purchasing 
the collection belonging to Gerald Troost, 
of Nashville. The study of these interest- 
ing bodies became thereafter his favorite 
subject of investigation, and about forty of 
his papers were devoted to them. He was 
active in collecting specimens of American 
falls, and his collection which contained 
representatives of 250 falls, passed on his 
death to Harvard University, swelling that 
collection until it became the best in the 
country. 
His study of meteorites led naturally to 
his devising improved methods of analysis, 
especially of the silicates, and while in Paris 
on one of his many visits there he became 
interested in the discovery of new elements 
in the complex mineral samarskite. He 
devoted much attention to the isolation of 
its constituents, and at the St. Louis meet- 
ing of our association announced the dis- 
covery of what he believed to be a new ele- 
ment, to which he gave the name of Mosan- 
drum. The announcement of the isolation 
ot a new element by a past president, gave 
to the chemical section in 1878, an impetus 
and dignity that it has never relinquished. 
Dr. Smith was also present at the Boston 
meeting, and it was about that time that he 
further announced his discovery of certain 
