SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 238 



his own endeavors acquired considerable skill at painting, secured a 

 position as a calico engraver at Lowell. Here he married Miss 

 Maria Peas?, and last year they celebrated the sixtieth anniversary 

 of their wedding. From 1826 to 1835 he was employed at the 

 Merrimac works at Lowell, designing patterns, a part of that time 

 being employed at other establishments of a similar character. 



During all that period he kept up his practice as a painter, he 

 being an enthusiast in that direction. In 1835 he discontinued his 

 business as a calico designer and engraver, and moved to Boston and 

 established a studio on Tremont Street, selecting Cambridge as a 

 place of residence, his home being on Prospect Street. His pictures 

 of the late Dr. Hare of Philadelphia and that of Dr. Hill of Cam- 

 bridge are specimens of his skill and taste. At the house on Brook- 

 line Street there are a number of specimens of his art, among which 

 are the faces of Daniel Webster, Constable Clapp, renowned in his 

 day as a skilful detector of crimes, and of a son who died when a 

 youth, painted from memory. During this time sons and daughters 

 were born to him, George B. in 1827 and Alvan G. in 1832, both of 

 whom are living. 



He began with his sons in 1846 the manufacture of telescopes. 

 The younger son, Alvan G., at first entered into other business, but 

 finally settled down to that of telescope making, and all three, under 

 the name and style of Clark & Sons, have worked together for 

 nearly forty years. 



In 1850 Mr. Alvan Clark went to Europe and spent a great deal of 

 his time with Mr. W. R. Dawes, the English astronomer, and while 

 in his observatory discovered a new star, now known as companion 

 to ' 99 Hercules.' Mr. Clark afterward had an extensive corre- 

 spondence with Mr. Dawes, and spoke of his connection with him 

 as the closest friendship of his life. Soon after his return from Eu- 

 rope in i860 he received the first order for a large telescope in this 

 country from the University of Mississippi, the glass being iS-J- 

 inches, three inches larger than any that had been hitherto success- 

 fully used in the world. The war prevented its sale to the southern 

 college, and it was finally purchased by the University of Chicago. 

 Then followed the construction of two glasses of twenty-six inches 

 each, one being disposed of to the University of Virginia and the 

 other placed in the observatory at Washington. Their reputation 

 rapidly spread through Europe, and orders came faster than they 

 could be filled. The number of instruments they have made is 

 very large. The cheapest one cost $300, while the national tele- 

 scope was sold for $46,000, and the cost of the Lick glass was set 

 at $50,000 without the mounting. 



This was the work of a man who never had seen a lens in pro- 

 cess of construction in the hands of any one out of his own shop. 

 Mr. Clark was emphatically a self-made man. His only education 

 was what he received in the public schools of western Massachu- 

 setts. His reputation was patiently, steadily, and justly earned, 

 His extraordinary power seemed to be acuteness of the eye, of the 

 touch, and of the understanding, combined with unlimited patience. 

 Not long since he said : " I owe largely my recognition by the 

 scientific world to Mr. Dawes. I had, as I thought, with one of 

 my telescopes discovered several new double stars. I wrote to 

 Dawes, asking him to verify my observations. He answered that 

 they were real discoveries. I reported other discoveries. Mr. 

 Dawes wrote : ' Where did you get your telescope .' ' 'I made it,' 

 was my reply. I sold him that glass and five others." 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 



Section C. 



The address of Vice-President Prescott was on the chemistry of 

 nitrogen as disclosed in the constitution of the alkaloids. He said, 

 " The character of nitrogen is a challenge to chemical skill. Mock- 

 ing us by its abundance in its free state, the compounds of this ele- 

 ment are so sparingly obtained that they set the rate of value in 

 supplies for the nourishment of life, — the agent chosen and trusted 

 for projectile force in arts of war and of peace, - — yet the manufac- 

 ture of its most simple and stable compound has been a vain at- 

 tempt, and it is one urged anew by the chemical industries. More- 

 over, nitrogen holds the structure of the aniline dyes, and governs 

 the constitution of the vegetable alkaloids. In research the nearest 

 approaches to the molecule as a chemical centre have been reached 



through organic chemistry. Carbon was the first and hydrogen has 

 been the second element to give to organic chemistry a definition. 

 At present, carbon is looked upon as the member for fixed position, 

 and hydrogen as the member for exchange, in organic families. 

 Nitrogen comes next in turn to receive attention. The study of 

 the carbonaceous compounds of nitrogen promises to do for organic 

 chemistry what the latter has done for general science." 



The speaker then outlined the history and present state of the 

 structural chemistry of the vegetable alkaloids, as follows : " i . Nitro- 

 genous bases as derivatives of ammonia. 2. Nitrogenous bases, 

 represented by aniline. 3. The pyridine type in the vegetable alka- 

 loids. The constitution of the pyridine and quinoline series was 

 ascertained by Koerner and by Baeyer in 1870. These bodies can 

 be obtained from bone-oil and from coal-tar. They are of a remark- 

 able chemical structure. Like aniline, they have the closed chain 

 of six positions, but, unlike aniline, they have one of these positions 

 held by nitrogen. The introduction of the atom of nitrogen into the 

 closed ring so affects the qualities of the molecule that stable addi- 

 tion-products are formed. About 1879 it began to appear that the 

 vegetable alkaloids in general are of the pyridine type, of ' aromatic ' 

 composition. In this type the structure of ammonia is not violated ; 

 and the theories of Liebig, Wurtz, and Hofmann are not superseded. 

 Within the last three or four years the veil has been drawn from the 

 structure of the chief alkaloids of plants. Even before that, the 

 alkaloids of black pepper, tobacco, and hemlock, of very simple 

 composition, were studied with success. The alkaloids of the bella- 

 donna-root, the cinchona-bark, and the coca-leaf, are now subject 

 to an increasing measure of constructive operation in the laboratory. 

 Morphine is convertible into codeine, and the efforts to convert 

 strychnine into brucine, and cinchonine into quinine, ought to suc- 

 ceed. The necessary studies of position in the pyridine molecule 

 are being entered upon. Some good medicinal alkaloids are being 

 made by art. It may come that the identical alkaloids of nature 

 will be made by art. Not by chance efforts, however, nor by pre- 

 mature short-cuts, but, if at all, through the well-earned progress of 

 the world's chemistry, will these results be gained. And it speaks 

 enough for the rate of this progress to say that one of the very first 

 of the forward steps here recounted was taken by a man still living 

 as a contributor. Due honor for what his hands have done, and 

 all gratitude for what his eyes have seen." 



Thirty-five papers and two committee reports were presented to 

 the section. The papers may be classified as follows : — Analytical 

 Chemistry, on a new apparatus for fractional distillation, by T. H. 

 Norton ; on the improvement in stand for electrolysis, by W. H. 

 Herrick ; on a process for separation of alkaloidal poisons, by Ar- 

 thur L. Greene ; on the determination of nitrogen by soda-lime, by 

 W. O. Atwater ; on indirect determination of calcium, by W. H. 

 Herrick ; on a new method for the preparation of anhydrous alu- 

 minum chloride, by C. F. Mabery. Plant Chemistry (agricultural 

 and pharmaceutical), on the composition of wild-cherry bark, by F. 

 B. Power and Henry Weimar ; on the chemical composition of the 

 juices of sorghum-cane in relation to the production of sugar, by H. 

 W. Wiley ; note on the chemi.stry of germination, and on the ab- 

 sorption of nitrogenous_ nutriment by the roots of plants, by William 

 McMurtrie ; on a compound rich in carbon occurring in some 

 plants, by Helen C. DeS. Abbott. Organic Chemistry, on the 

 fatty acids of drying oils, by L. M. Norton ; on some higher homo- 

 logues of cocaine, by F. G. Novy ; on the salts of benzene-sulphonic 

 acid with the amines, on some new metallic salts of benzene-sul- 

 phonic acid, on the amine salts of para-toluene-sulphonic acid, on 

 the action of silicon fluoride on acetone, on the limits of the direct 

 bromination of acetone and on the action between ammonium sul- 

 phocyanide and monobrom-acetone, on the action of chlorine on 

 acenaphthene, on the urates of ammonium and the amines of the 

 fatty acids, and on some new nitro-prussides, by T. H. Norton ; on 

 the action of aromatic amines upon certain substituted unsaturated 

 acids, and on the constitution of the sulphur compounds in crude 

 petroleum oils, by C. F. Mabery. Mineral Chemistry, on the 

 composition of Lockport Sandstone, by H. W. Weld ; on the pro- 

 cesses of soil-formation from the north-western basalts, by E. W. 

 Hilgard ; on the occurrence in nature of a copper antimonide, and 

 on certain alloys of calcium and zinc, by T. H. Norton ; analyses of 

 two manganese minerals, by F. C. Novy. Theoretical Chemistry,. 



