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1888. ] 243 [ Robinson. 
who preceded or succeeded him, since its foundation 
to this day. 
His father, Adam Seybert, was a Philadelphian by 
birth and education, and distinguished as a chemist 
and mineralogist, who represented his native city in 
Congress during eight successive years, three of them 
(the years 1812, 43 and ’14), years of great trial, and 
at the time characterized as the period of our country’s 
second war of independence. Between the close of 
this war and 1818 Mr. Seybert found time to prepare 
and give to the world, whilst performing faithfully his 
duties as a member of Congress, and in his laboratory, 
his “Statistical Annals of the United States of America,” 
a work reviewed in the Edinburgh Review of January, 
1820, by the Rev. Sydney Smith, in an article which 
Speaks of it as “a book of character and authority,” 
“which will form a pretty complete portrait of Amer- 
ica, and teach us here to appreciate the country, either 
as a powerful enemy or a profitable friend.” 
Asa chemist and mineralogist he is spoken of in a 
work by Professor Benjamin Silliman, of Yale College, 
entitled “ American Contributions to Chemistry,” page 
36, as follows: 
“ Adam Seybert is one of the few American chemists 
who enjoyed the advantages, rare at that time, of a 
training in the School of Mines at Paris, late in the 
last century. He has left few papers, but his memoir, 
read before the American Philosophical Society, March 
10, 1797, entitled, ‘Experiments and Observations on 
