This represents some of his early pioneering work on the effect of x-rays on the development of embryos.

A military officer and civilian superintendent of the École Polytechnique in Paris, Albert de Rochas became one of the best known psychic researchers in late nineteenth century France. His interests centered on uncovering the laws behind psychic forces, somnambulism, magnetism and mesmerism, hypnotism, perception, and reincarnation. A prolific writer, he studied a number of Spiritualist and Spiritist mediums, including Maria Mayo (Lina), Eusapia Paladino, and D. D. Home. Despite the relatively small size of the collection, the papers of Albert de Rochas open an important window onto the development of psychic science in fin de siecle France and onto the cultural impact of Spiritualism. The collection includes a scattered, but valuable selection of correspondence with fellow psychic researchers, editors, mediums, and other individuals interested in psychic research, and a valuable set of 69 spirit and psychic photographs, that Rochas collected as evidence of psychic forces, and as documentation of séances, mediums, and "sensitives." Rochas' work on the exteriorization of sensibility and studies of Lina, Charles Bailey, and Paladino are relatively well documented, and his interests in the laws of psychic phenomena, reincarnation, and the exmigration of the living soul run throughout.

An electrical engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur, Elihu Thomson was an innovator in electrification in both a technical and corporate sense. With interests that ranged from the technical (electrical meters, high-pressure steam engines, dynamos, generators) to scientific (fused quartz optics, X-rays), Thomson acquired over 700 patents in his career, and in 1882, founded one of the early electrical corporations in the United States, the Thomson-Houston Company, which merged with the Edison Electric Company in 1892 to form the General Electric Company. The Thomson Papers are a massive and nearly comprehensive collection documenting the wide range of Thomson's scientific and technical interestsm from his electrical experiments, inventions, and patents, to his interests in astronomy, geology, and medicine, as well as his role in the development of two major corporations involved in electrification, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company and General Electric Company. Roughly three quarters of the collection is dated between 1890 and 1920 when Thomson was associated with General Electric, and was active in professional groups such as the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), International Electrotechnical Commission. His research interests. The balance of the collection is comprised of eight boxes and five volumes relating to Thomson's patents; a series of notebooks kept at Central High School; 43 letterbooks, 1882-1936; diaries of trips to Europe; notebooks on genealogy; scrapbooks of cards, photographs, clippings, and other souvenirs; and 2 vols. of tributes on his eightieth birthday, etc.

A pathologist and cancer specialist, James B. Murphy (1884-1950) spent most of career associated with the Rockefeller Institute (1911-1950) investigating the role of lymphocytes in tuberculosis, x-ray mutagenesis, and the nature of malignant tumors in fowls. The Murphy Papers contains professional correspondence and research notes relating to James B. Murphy's cancer research at the Rockefeller, and information on several of the organizations to which he contributed or belonged, including the American Association for Cancer Research; American Bureau for Medical Aid to China; American Cancer Society; Bar Harbor Medical and Surgical Hospital; Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory; Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Cancer (New York City, ca. 1932-1950); National Advisory Cancer Council; and the New York Academy of Medicine (1923-1950). Murphy helped to develop mobile laboratories for hospitals in France during World War I.