nstrumentality yet devised for "the increase and diffusion of
knowledge among men."

Smithson was born in 1765, and received the degree of Master of
Arts from Pembroke College at the age of twenty-one. A year later
he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society, upon the recommendation
of his instructors, as being "a gentleman well versed in the various
branches of Natural Philosophy, and particularly in Chemistry and
Mineralogy." As a student, he was devoted to the study of the
sciences, especially chemistry, and his entire life, in fact,
was given to scientific research. Twenty-seven papers from his
pen were published in "The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society" and in "Thompson's Annals of Philosophy," near the close of
the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, and
"all give evidence that he was an assiduous and faithful
experimenter."

In this connection, the statement of Professor Clarke, Chief Chemist
of the United States Geographical Survey, is in point:

"The most notable feature of Smithson's writings from the standpoint
of the analytical chemist, is the success obtained with the most
primitive and unsatisfactory appliances. In Smithson's day, chemical
apparatus was undeveloped, and instruments were improvised from
such materials as lay readiest to hand. With such instruments,
and with crude reagents, Smithson obtained analytical results of
the most creditable character, and enlarged our knowledge of
many mineral species. In his time, the native carbonate and the
silicate of zinc were confounded as one species under the name
calamine; but his researches distinguished between the two minerals,
which are now known as Smithsonite and Calamine, respectively.

"To theory Smithson contributed little, if anything; but from a
theoretical point of view, the tone of his writings is singularly
modern. His work was mostly done before Dalton had announced
the atomic theory; and yet Smithson saw clearly that a law of
definite proportions must exist, although he did not attempt to
account for it. His ability as a reasoner is best shown in his
paper on the Kirkdale Bone Cave, which Penn had sought to interpret
by reference to the Noachian Deluge. A clearer and more
complete demolition of Penn's views could hardly be written to-day.
Smithson was gentle with his adversary, but none the less thorough,
for all his moderation. He is not to be classed among the leaders
of scientific thoug