SMITH 1072 SMITH thorough investigation into meteorological con- ditions, character of soils and culture affecting the growth of cotton. His report on this sub- ject was so valuable that in 1846 he was ap- pointed by Secretary Buchanan, in response to a request of the Sultan of Turkey, to teach the Turkish Agriculturists the proper method of cotton culture in Asia Minor. On arriving in Turkey, Dr. Smith was chagrined to find that an associate on the commission had in- duced the Turkish Government to undertake the culture of cotton near Constantinople. Unwilling to associate his name with an enter- prise which he felt satisfied would be a failure —the event justified his judgment — he was on the eve of returning to America when the Turkish Government tendered him an inde- pendent position as mining engineer, with most liberal provisions, so he worked in this posi- tion for four years with such signal success that the Turkish government heaped upon him decorations and costly presents. After 1846 the Turkish government continued to re- ceive large revenues from his discoveries of emery, chrome ores, coals, etc. His papers on these subjects, read before learned societies and published in the principal journals of Europe and America, gave him a high posi- tion among scientific men. His discovery of emery in Asia Minor destroyed the rapacious monopoly of this article at Naxos, in the Grecian Ardiipelago, extended its use and greatly reduced its price. His studies on emery and its associate minerals led directly to its discovery in America, in Massa- chusetts and North Carolina. There is now a large industrial product of emery. To him justly belongs the credit of having done almost everything for these commercial enterprises by his successful researches on emery and corundum; he also investigated a great many Turkish resources, and his paper on "The Thermal waters of Asia Minor," is of great scientific value. In 1850 he invented the in- verted microscope. This instrument, with its ingenious eye-piece micrometer and goniometer is an important improvement (American Jour- nal of Science and Arts, New Haven, 1852, 2 s., xiv). It has been unjustly figured and described in some works as Nachet's chemical microscope. After Dr. Smith's return to America, his alma mater, the University of Virginia, called him to the chair of chemistry, in which, with the help of his assistant, George J. Brush, he performed the valuable work of revising the "Chemistry of American Minerals." Hav- ing married a daughter of the Hon. James Guthrie of Louisville, Kentucky, Prof. Smith resigned his chair in the University of Vir- ginia, and adopted Louisville as his home, and in 1854 was made professor of chemistry in the medical department of the University of Louisville, but he finally resigned it to devote his time to scientific research. In 1855 he published a valuable memoir on "Meteorites," his private collection of which was one of the largest in the world. In 1873 he issued an interesting work con- taining the more important of his scientific researches and he contributed a large number of valuable papers to various scientific jour- nals. Prof. Smith was very ingenious in de- vising new apparatus and methods of analysis. While much of his work was of a practical kind, he yet preferred original research in the less cultivated fields. Prof. Smith was a most indefatigable worker; his more important original re- searches number nearly one hundred and fifty. He co-edited The Southern Journal of Medi- cine and Pharmacy, Charleston, 1846. In 1879 he was elected corresponding mem- ber of the Academy of Sciences of the In- stitute of France to succeed Sir Charles Lyell. Prof. Smith received honors from the prin- cipal scientific bodies of the world. He was a member of the following societies: The American National Academy of Sciences; Membre Correspondant de ITnstitut de France (Academic des Sciences) ; the Chemical So- ciety of Berlin; the Chemical Society of Paris; the Chemical Society of London, the Societe d'Encouragement pour I'ln- dustrie Nationale ; the Imperial Miner- alogical Society of St. Petersburg; American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur; member of the order of Nichan Iftahar of Turkey; member of the order of Medjidiah of Turkey; chevalier of the Imperial Order of St. Stanislas, of Russia. Prof. Smith was of imposing presence and great dignity, strong, pure-hearted, withal one of the most modest and unostentatious of men. He was most generous with his apparatus, and anyone manifesting an interest in science was sure of help and encouragement. Joseph Benson Marvin. Pop. Sci. Month., N. Y., 1S74-5, vol. vi, Portrait; Louisville Med. News. 1879, vol. viii. In Memoriam, M. Michel, Charleston, S. C, 1S84. Year Book, City of Charleston, S. C, 1883. Smith, Joseph Mather (1789-1866) "Forty years a public teacher in medicine, forty-six years constantly concerned in the
