HENRY CARRINGTON BOLTON 79 



the need of the modern worker for help and guidance in his 

 researches, and sought thus to supply it. He inaugurated in 

 this a monumental work, which should win for him the grati- 

 tude of every special investigator in chemistry. He began this 

 work himself, and the first indexes, by him and by others in- 

 spired by him, appeared in the Annals of this Academy. It has 

 subsequently grown to great expansion and variety, largely 

 through his committee in the American Association ; and now 

 it will go on, though, alas ! other hands must direct its prog- 

 ress. His next step, also begun in the Annals of this society, 

 was his " Bibliography of Chemical Periodicals," in all the lan- 

 guages in which they are published. This led on to the hercu- 

 lean task that occupied all his later years in Washington, and 

 which he was fortunately able to complete. These great works 

 are "A Select Bibliography of Chemistry, 1492 to 1896," and 

 ** A Catalogue of Scientific and Technical Periodicals, 1665 to 

 1895 " — together with extended supplements, bringing down 

 both of them to very recent dates. They will long remain as 

 his grand memorial. 



To a mind like Dr. Bolton's, the subject of alchemy and the 

 old traditions and superstitions connected with it, could not but 

 appeal with great interest ; and he was noted for his familiarity 

 with those topics and with many very curious related aspects, 

 on which he published numerous articles. The strange sur- 

 vivals, and even revivals, of alchemistic fancies fn the modern 

 world, led him naturally to an interest in folk-lore ; and he was 

 active as an officer in the organization of the American Folk- 

 Lore Society. His restless and suggestive mind was ever lead- 

 ing him to explore peculiar and unfamiliar paths, and to turn 

 aside from the beaten tracks that most of us are either content 

 or constrained to follow, into byways that lead off into near and 

 yet unknown places where few or none have trod. An instance 

 of this kind was his research upon sonorous or "singing" 

 sands, carried on through years, largely in connection with our 

 honored member. Dr. A. A. Julien, and in which he traveled 

 widely and gathered material from many lands and seashores^ 

 and showed that this phenomenon, still essentially unexplained, 



