ANALYSES OF ROCKS, LABORATORY OF THE UNITED STATES 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 1880-1899. 
By F. W. Clarke. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The present Geological Survey of the United States was organized 
in 1879. In 1880 a chemical laboratory was established at Denver, in 
connection with the Colorado work, in charge of Dr. W. F. Hillebrand, 
with whom were associated Mr. Antony Guyard and, later, Mr. L. G. 
Eakins. In 1882 Dr. W. H. Melville was placed in charge of a second 
laboratory at San Francisco, and in the autumn of 1883 the central 
laboratoiy was started in Washington, with myself as chief chemist. 
In November, 1885, Dr. Hillebrand was transferred to Washington; 
early in 1888 he was followed by Mr. Eakins, and the Denver labora- 
tory was discontinued. In the spring of 1890 Dr. Melville also was 
transferred to Washington, and since then the chemical work of the 
Survey has been concentrated at headquarters. 
Up to January 1, 1900, nearly 4,400 analyses have been made in the 
laboratory at Washington. These represent rocks, minerals, ores, 
waters, sediments, coals, metals, and so on through all the range of 
substances with which geology has to do. There were also some hun- 
dreds of analyses made in the laboratories at Denver and San Francisco. 
A fair amount of research work upon mineralogical and analytical 
problems has also been done. In all of this work the following chem- 
ists have been employed: Charles Catlett, T. M. Chatard, F. W. Clarke, 
L. G. Eakins, F. A. Gooch, Antony Guyard, W. F. Hillebrand, W. H. 
Melville, R. B. Riggs, E. A. Schneider, George Steiger, H. N. Stokes, 
William Valentine, and J. E. Whitfield. As many as eight of these 
have been at work simultaneously; at present only four are connected 
with the Survey. Other officers of the Survey have been occupied 
more or less with chemical questions; but the men named in this list 
were connected directly with the laboratory. Some work for the 
chemical division has also been done by chemists not regularly on the 
rolls of the Survey; but their analyses, with the exception of a single 
group to be noted later, do not fall within the scope of this paper. 
Quite naturally, on account of the activity of the petrographers, the 
dominant feature of the laboratoiy work has been the analysis of rocks. 
These have been studied in great numbers and in the most thorough 
way. The results have appeared in widely scattered publications, 
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