94 
EDITORIAL. 
plainness  and  precision,  except  in  the  genial  hour  of  the  social  circle,  when 
his  exquisite  wit  shone  out. 
Gmelin's  chemical  discoveries  were  several,  among  which  was  the  red 
prussiate  of  potash,  the  discovery  of  which  was  instrumental  in  bringing 
over  Berzelius  to  the  modern  theory  of  chlorine,  His  gi eat  labor,  however 
was  his  "  Handbuch  of  Chemistry,"  a  work  in  which  he  has  grasped  all 
that  has  been  done  by  others,  and  arranged  it  in  order.  For  such  a  task 
he  had  a  thorough  technical  knowledge,  a  universal  acquaintance  with  lan- 
guages, a  restless  industry,  a  tenacity  of  purpose  which  shrank  from  no 
difficulties,  and  a  strength  of  memory  which  served  him  on  all  occasions. 
That  which  renders  his  Handbook  so  incomparable,  may  be  comprehended 
when  we  recollect  that  it  gives  the  kernel  of  every  chemical  research  with 
such  faithfulness  and  completeness,  as  to  replace  directly  the  original  trea- 
tise in  many  cases, — (Annals  of  Pharmacy.) 
The  new  edition  of  this  woik,  which  is  in  course  of  translation  and 
publication  by  the  Cavendish  Society,  was  not  completed  at  his  death,  yet 
so  nearly  that  it  will  be  finished  by  the  help  of  others  from  his  papers. 
Auguste  Laurent. — M,  Laurent,  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  the  modern 
French  chemists,  and  the  author  of  the  nucleus  theory  of  organic  chemical 
constitution,  died  at  Paris  on  the  15th  of  April  last,  in  the  forty-sixth  year 
of  his  age.  He  was  earnest  in  the  pursuit  of  science  under  the  discourage- 
ments of  a  limited  income,  and  too  disinterested  to  seek  pecuniary  benefit 
from  his  discoveries.  "  His  life  was  a  constant  combat  with  circumstances/' 
saysM.  Nickles,  Silliman,  July,  103,  "  and  hence  instructive  to  the  moralist 
and  philosopher.  If  ever  a  man  elevated  himself  by  the  force  of  geniusand 
perseverance,  such  pre-eminently  was  Laurent,  to  whom  every  thing  was 
denied,  and  who  made  his  chef-cVouvre  out  of  nothing  !,;  His  fundamental 
principle  was,  "  That  form  or  arrangement  has  often  more  influence  on  proper- 
ties than  matter  itself — a  principle  which  has  served  as  the  guiding  thread 
in  his  researches,  even  to  the  theories  of  substitution,  of  hemimorphism  of 
isomer  omorphism,  and  of  crystalline  types,  these  in  fact  being  corollaries 
from  this  principle." 
Adrien  de  Jussieu. — Prof,  Adrien  de  Jussieu,  the  son  and  successor  of 
A.  L.  de  J ussieu  (author  of  the  Genera  Plantarum,')  and  the  grand  nephew 
of  Bernard  de  Jussieu,  the  correspondent  of  Linnaeus,  and  the  first  to  sketch 
the  Natural  System  of  Botany,  died  on  the  29th  of  June,  at  the  age  of  56 
years.  From  Dr.  Gray,  in  Silliman' s  Journal  for  Nov.,  we  learn  that  he 
had  been  in  bad  health  for  several  years,  and  was  carried  off  by  a  cancerous 
affection  of  the  stomach.  With  him  closes  the  illustrious  line  of  the  Jus- 
sieus,  which  for  more  than  a  century  has  been  dominant  in  botany.  M. 
de  Jussieu  was  himself  one  the  soundest  and  most  learned  botanists  of  the 
age,  and  a  most  estimable  man.  He  was  President  of  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  at  the  period  of  his  death. 
