36-1 Arthur Williams Wright. 



observations on the current theory of comets. This terminates 

 the series of papers on occluded gases in meteorites, but it is 

 interesting to note that the mastery of the problems involved 

 served him in an admirable piece of work five years later 

 (1881). The paper — " On the gaseous substances contained 

 in the smoky quartz of Branchville, Conn." — is sufficiently 

 defined by its title, but the skill and success with which the 

 investigation was carried out and the results presented makes 

 the article a model worthy of careful study. 



In 1877 Professor Wright published two important papers 

 on the deposition of metallic films by the cathode discharge in 

 exhausted tubes. A clear description of the technique of the 

 process and of the physical properties of a large number of 

 metals thus treated makes the papers of unusual interest. The 

 intrinsic value of his method has proved so great that it is 

 quite probable that the name of the author is more widely 

 known from these scientific contributions than from any others 

 published during his long and active life. 



In the foregoing review of the scientific work of Professor 

 Wright there has been no effort to do more than sketch the 

 contents of the papers of chief importance ; a large number of 

 notes and minor contributions to science have been passed over. 

 It would hardly be just, however, to fail to note his activities 

 in X-ray experiments. At a time when Kontgen's discovery 

 was hardly more than a rumor and the greater number of 

 physicists, perhaps somewhat skeptically, w r ere awaiting more 

 definite descriptions of methods and results, Professor Wright 

 immediately applied the test of experiment and secured the 

 first of these photographs made in this country. This showed 

 in a very striking way his command of all the resources of his 

 science at the time ; nor did he stop with a mere verification 

 of the most wonderful features of the phenomena. He made 

 many studies of the nature of the radiations and their reactions 

 on various forms of matter, but, like other contemporary inves- 

 tigations, the results were hardly more than negative and he 

 published them only in a preliminary paper (1896) on the 

 subject. 



This short review of the more important scientific work of 

 Professor Wright, which was published and is attainable by 

 everybody, does not by any means exhaust the list of his activ- 

 ities. His observations on the polarization of the solar corona 

 made in Colorado on the occasion of the solar eclipse of July 

 29, 1878, were among the most important and conclusive up to 

 that time. So, too, at a later date (1888) he aided the Govern- 

 ment, as a member of a committee appointed by the National 

 Academy of Sciences, in fixing the standards for polariscopic 

 determinations of sugars at the National Custom Houses. This 



