Editing James Smithson (section)

==Scientific work==
[[File:Smithsonite Kelly Mine.jpg|thumb|right|[[Smithsonite]], which was named after Smithson]]

Smithson's research work was eclectic. He studied subjects ranging from coffee making to the use of [[calamine (mineral)|calamine]], eventually renamed [[smithsonite]], in making [[brass]]. He also studied the chemistry of human [[tears]], [[snake venom]] and other natural occurrences. Smithson would publish twenty-seven papers.<ref name=SIAmain/> He was nominated to the [[Royal Society of London]] by [[Henry Cavendish]] and was made a fellow on 26 April 1787.<ref name=royal>{{cite book|last=Goode|first=George Brown|title=The Smithsonian Institution, 1846–1896, The History of Its First Half Century|year=1897|publisher=De Vinne Press|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=11|url=http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_458}}</ref> Smithson socialised and worked with scientists [[Joseph Priestley]], [[Sir Joseph Banks]], [[Antoine Lavoisier]], and [[Richard Kirwan]].<ref name=Colquhoun/>

His first paper was presented at the Royal Society on 7 July 1791, "An Account of Some Chemical Experiments on [[Tabasheer]]".<ref name=royal/> Tabasheer is a substance used in traditional Indian medicine and derived from material collected inside bamboo culms. The samples that Macie analysed had been sent by [[Patrick Russell (herpetologist)|Patrick Russell]], physician-naturalist in India.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://archive.org/details/philtrans06714782|title=An Account of Some Chemical Experiments on Tabasheer|author=Macie, James Louis Macie, Esq. |journal=Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. |year=1791|volume=81|pages=368–388|doi=10.1098/rstl.1791.0025|s2cid=186214539}}</ref>

In 1802 he read his second paper, "A Chemical Analysis of Some Calamines," at the Royal Society. It was published in the ''[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London]]'' and was the documented instance of his new name, James Smithson. In the paper, Smithson challenges the idea that the mineral [[Calamine (mineral)|calamine]] is an [[oxide]] of [[zinc]]. His discoveries made calamine a "true mineral".<ref name=calamine>{{cite book|last=Goode|first=George Brown|title=The Smithsonian Institution, 1846–1896, The History of Its First Half Century|year=1897|publisher=Di Vinne Press|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=12–13|url=http://www.siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_462}}</ref>

He explored and examined [[Kirkdale Cave]]; his findings, published in 1824, successfully challenged previous beliefs that the fossils within the formations at the cave were from the [[Great Flood]].<ref name=cave>{{cite book|last=Goode|first=George Brown|title=The Smithsonian Institution, 1846–1896, The History of Its First Half Century.|year=1897|publisher=De Vinne Press|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=13–14|url=http://www.siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_463}}</ref>

Smithson is credited with first using the word "[[silicates]]";<ref name=Colquhoun/> Smithson's bank records at [[C. Hoare & Co]] show extensive and regular income derived from [[Apsley Pellatt (1763–1826)|Apsley Pellatt]], which suggests that Smithson had a strong financial or scientific relationship with the Blackfriars glass maker.