POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



859 



already here, and that they in turn influence 

 a considerable percentage of immigration 

 that comes on tickets purchased directly in 

 the Old World. The prepaid business is 

 largely affected and increased by even tem- 

 porary improvement in our conditions here. 

 So far as this class of immigrants is con- 

 cerned, it argues against the belief that exists 

 in the minds of many of our people that the 

 quality of immigration, as to character, is 

 inferior to that of former years, as it neces- 

 sarily follows that the class who are prepaid, 

 belonging to the same families as those who 

 prepay, must be of the same general charac- 

 ter. This information as to our conditions is 

 also supplemented by the large number of 

 persons who return to their native lands tem- 

 porarily, and whose improved appearance, 

 enhanced prosperity, and statements to their 

 old friends disseminate the knowledge of the 

 better conditions in this country. A refer- 

 ence to the table of steerage passengers re- 

 turning to all parts of Europe during the 

 year previous to the making of the report 

 demonstrates the volume of this business. 

 Low passage rates, sea and inland, affect the 

 currents both coming and going. Generally, 

 wherever the manufacturing industries are 

 active emigration is sluggish ; and it is small 

 wherever the wages are fairly good as com- 

 pared with the standard of wants and man- 

 ner of living of the working people. In ad- 

 dition to the superior conditions prevailing 

 here, the conditions in Europe greatly affect 

 the outflow. Short crops, industrial depres- 

 sion, social persecutions, and rumors and an- 

 ticipations of war swell the tide. 



Prof. N. T. Lnpton. — Nathaniel Thomas 

 Lupton, Professor of Chemistry in the Ala- 

 bama Agricultural and Mechanical College, 

 a pioneer in America in teaching chemistry 

 as a practical science, died in Auburn, Ala., 

 June 11th. He was a native of Virginia; 

 studied chemistry under Bunsen at Heidel- 

 berg, worked with him afterward, and made 

 special investigations in his laboratory after 

 his own fame had been established in Amer- 

 ica. He was engaged during a large portion 

 of his life in original research, at home, in 

 Mexico, and in Europe ; was connected with 

 several Southern institutions of learning, in- 

 cluding ten years at Vanderbilt University, 

 and built up the school of chemistry at Au- 



burn, Ala. He was much interested in other 

 sciences than chemistry, particularly with 

 ethnology, and contributed largely from his 

 Mexican, Western, and Southwestern re- 

 searches to the Smithsonian collection of 

 relics of the Indians and mound-builders. 

 His own collection of minerals and prehis- 

 toric relics is extensive and interesting. He 

 was twice President of the Chemical Section 

 of the American Association, was President 

 last year of the Association of Official Chem- 

 ists of the United States, and was a member 

 of several foreign scientific and other soci- 

 eties. He was the author of a book on scien- 

 tific agriculture, and a frequent and valued 

 contributor to the scientific publications of 

 this country and Europe. 



Copper Works of the Aborigines. — The 



present evidence regarding the use of cop- 

 per by the aborigines of this country, as re- 

 viewed by R. L. Packard, in the American 

 Antiquarian, appears to show that the metal 

 had not passed its ornamental or precious 

 stage on the seaboard or in the South at the 

 time this continent was brought to the atten- 

 tion of Europe. It was not part of the na- 

 tive equipment, either for war, or hunting, 

 or other useful purposes, and its position in 

 the native economy was not like the notice- 

 able part it played in the armament of the 

 Mexicans and Central Americans of the same 

 period. In the absence of evidence that the 

 Indians of the United States had any knowl- 

 edge of smelting, it must be inferred that all 

 the copper they possessed was found in the 

 metallic or native state. There is nothing to 

 show that they were aware of the existence 

 of copper ore as a source of metal. No re- 

 mains of smelting places, or slag, or other 

 indications of metallurgical operations have 

 yet been found. The quantity of copper 

 which the North American Indians possessed 

 at the time of the discovery, although the 

 ; metal was diffused over a very wide territory, 

 was very small as compared with stone. 

 This is shown by the relatively small propor- 

 tion of copper implements in the principal 

 collections, as at the Smithsonian Institution 

 and the Peabody Museum. The larger num- 

 bers are found in Wisconsin, and this is ac- 

 counted for by the fact that Wisconsin is 

 directly south of the Keweenaw district in 

 Michigan where the largest beds of native 



