80 MARTIN 



is somewhat frequent rather than very rare, and is not at all 

 dependent upon several of the causes to which it was formerly 

 ascribed. 



In original investigation in chemistry, however, Dr. Bolton 

 was capable of excellent work, although this was not his most 

 important field. His early researches have already been in part 

 alluded to, on fluorescent compounds of uranium, and also on 

 the platino-cyanides. In both these groups he prepared a large 

 number of rare and novel compounds, crystallized with great 

 success and great elegance.^ His subsequent studies upon the 

 action of organic acids on minerals and ** The Behavior of Nat- 

 ural Sulphides with Iodine and other Reagents," were highly 

 original in character and of much interest. They appeared in 

 the Annals of this society, in several successive papers, while 

 Dr. Bolton was professor in Trinity College ; and it is interest- 

 ing to recall that the first of these was Article I in Volume I of 

 the Annals of the N. Y. Academy of Sciences — after the change 

 of name from the old Lyceum. 



I cannot in a brief article like this, begin to do justice to the 

 memory of one whom I knew so well and esteemed so highly ; 

 we came forward together in the Lyceum, and worked together 

 as fellow-members, friends and officers, in close and constant 

 association for many years in the Academy. It only remains 

 for me to add that Dr. Bolton in his personal views and feel- 

 ings was a reverent Christian believer — a scientist who knew 

 too well the limitations of human experience and attainment, the 

 mutability of human philosophies and conceptions, and the 

 vastness of the field of the unexplored and unimagined that 

 surrounds our science on every hand, to doubt or deny the 

 reality of the spiritual and the unseen. Three years ago, on 

 retiring from the office of President of the Chemical Society of 



'This beautiful and remarkable series of uranium salts, which Dr. Bolton had 

 given to the Columbian University, was loaned by that institution to form one of 

 the exhibits in the radium display organized by the U. S. Geological Survey at the 

 St. Louis Exposition. The writer called the attention of the Special Commissioner 

 in charge of the radium display, Mr. George F. Kunz, to this collection, and it 

 was thus secured as an interesting contribution to that notable feature of the Fair. 



