Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/711

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SKETCH OF HENRY CARRINGTON BOLTON.
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New York Academy of Sciences, 1888. The Likenesses of Joseph Priestley in Oil, Ink, Marble, and Metal, Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1888. The Contributions of Alchemy to Numismatics, American Journal of Numismatics, 1890. Progress of Chemistry as depicted in Apparatus and Laboratories, Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1893. An Account of the Progress of Chemistry for the Years 1882 to 1886, prepared annually for the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-'87. The last four contain bibliographies for their respective years.

Dr. Bolton's interest in the history of chemistry took practical shape in 1874, when he originated and organized the Centennial Celebration of the Discovery of Oxygen by Dr. Joseph Priestley, held August 1st at Northumberland, Pa.; on this occasion seventy chemists from all parts of the United States and Canada assembled around Priestley's grave to do him honor. The proceedings at this memorable gathering were printed in full in the American Chemist (1875). The acquaintances formed at this meeting with the descendants of Dr. Priestley were continued by Dr. Bolton, and through them he eventually secured a number of unpublished letters of the distinguished chemist; these letters he edited and published in a volume bearing the title: Scientific Correspondence of Joseph Priestley; New York, privately printed, 1892.

In 1882 a casual visit to the so-called "singing beach," at Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass., made him acquainted with the peculiar natural phenomenon of musical sand, and, finding its study had been almost wholly neglected, he began an investigation which eventually led him to make journeys aggregating thirty-three thousand miles in search of sand having musical properties. Early in the research he secured the assistance of Dr. Alexis A. Julien, of Columbia College, to whose skill with the microscope he is greatly indebted. Jointly with Dr. Julien he has published several abstracts of papers on Musical Sand (Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences), which have been widely noticed in current literature.

The following papers, on topics of very wide range, can not be classified more narrowly.

Sundry Scientific and Literary.—Magic Squares, their History, Preparation and Properties (six papers). Acta Columbiana, 1874. The Log-book of the Savannah, Harper's Magazine, 1877. Legends of Sepulchral and Perpetual Lamps, Monthly Journal of Science, London, 1879. Microscopic Crystals in Vertebra? of Toads, Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1880. A Handy Multiplication Table, American Teacher, 1885. The Life and Writings of Elisha North, M. D., Transactions of the Connecticut Medical Society, 1887. Scientific