HUNT, Tuomas STERRY, LL.D., PH.D.; b. Conn., 1825. In 1845 he became assist ant to prof. Silliman in his chemical laboratory at Yale college, and in 1847 was appointed chemist and mineralogist to the geographical survey of Canada. He held this post for more than twenty-five years, resigning in 1872 to accept the chair of geology in tire Massachusetts institute of technology. His earlier studies were directed especially to theoretical chemistry, developing a theory essentially his own, in which all chemical compounds are deduced from simple types represented by one or more molecules of water or of hydrogen. These views are maintained by him in a series of papers in the American Journal of Science, beginning in 1848. Ills researches into the chemical and mineral composition of rocks have probably been exceedingly thorough; while his investigations of the chemistry of mineral waters have l6d him to form a theory of their origin and formation, and their relations to the origin of rock masses, both crystalline and uncrystalline, and to lay the basis for a system of chemical geology. He has dis cussed the phenomena of volcanoes and igneous rocks, and has revived the theory that the source of these is to be sought in the chemical reaction set up in the sedimentary deposits of the crust of the earth, through the agency of internal heat; and has sought to harmonize the:factS of dynamical geology with the notioyoflid globe, in oppo sition to that which holds to a globe with a liquid interior. His views on these and
other kindred questions, are to be found in an essay on the Chemistry of the Earth, in the report of the Smithsonian institution for 1869, in his address as retiring president of the American association for the advancement of science, and in more recent papers. His contributions to American and European scientific societies and journals are very numerous; and a collection of many of them was published in 1874. He furnished many important articles in his specialty to Appleton's American, Cyclopedia, and is a member of the leading societies of both continents. He has reported fully on the auriferous quartz belt or Nova Scotia.