FIELDING BRADFORD MEEK. 321 



ing. He was invited to and often attended the Teachers' Associations 

 and meetings throughout the country. In 1844, he was President of 

 the Teachers' Association of New York ; and in recent years, a mem- 

 ber of the "• University Convocation " of New York. It was to that 

 body that he made his Report on the " Metric System," which was 

 published in 1870. In 1824, the degree of A.M. was conferred by tlie 

 College of New Jersey (Princeton) ; and in 1825, the same degree, by 

 Williams College, Massachusetts; and in 1840, the degree of LL.D., 

 by Geneva College, New York. If his was a life of actual teaching, 

 it was perhaps still more so as the writer of text-books, and the author 

 of methods. He began with the translation of Legendre's Geometry. 

 It was a capital book on that subject ; and its success induced him to 

 go on with other works. Among them are no less than six different 

 grades of Arithmetics ; Elementary works on Algebra, Geometry, 

 Trigonometry, Practical Mathematics, Surveying and Navigation, 

 Analytical Geometry, Differential and Integral Calculus, Descriptive 

 Geometry, Shades, Shadows and Perspective. In addition to these, he 

 wrote the Logic and Utility of Mathematics ; and, jointly with Profes- 

 sor Peck, the Mathematical Dictionary. The following is a complete 

 list : Primary Arithmetic, Intellectual Arithmetic, First Lessons in 

 Arithmetic, Elements of Written Arithmetic, Old School Arithmetic, 

 School Arithmetic, Practical Arithmetic, University Arithmetic, Ele- 

 mentary Algebra, New Elementary Algebra, University Algebra, 

 Bourdon's Algebra, Elements of Geometry and Trigonometry, Legen- 

 dre's Geometry, Practical Mathematics and Mensuration, Elements of 

 Surveying, Elements of Calculus, Analytical Geometry and Calculus, 

 Desfriptive Geometry, Shades, Shadows and Perspective, Foundations 

 of Mathematical Science, Grammar of Arithmetic, Outlines of Mathe- 

 matics, Mathematical Tables, The Metric System, Logic and Utility of 

 Mathematics, Mathematical Dictionary. 



FIELDING BRADFORD MEEK. 



Fielding Bradford Meek was born in Madison, Ind., on Dec. 

 10, 1817, and died in Washington on Dec. 21, 1876. The circumstances 

 of his little-eventful life are of small intere>t to his fellow-workers in 

 science, save in so far as they show the conditions under which his pe- 

 culiarly acute perceptions and admirable judgment became fitted for 

 his excellent scientific work. Born in a community where science had 

 no place, and urged by his surroundings to begin commercial ventures 

 in a frontier society, with little preliminary training of any sort, and 



VOL. XII. (n. S. IV.) 21 



