ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 115 



gested a meeting of geologists from Virginia, Pemisylvaiiia and 

 New York fur the purj)ose of devising and adopting a uiiifoiin 

 geological nomenclature for use among the several State geolo- 

 gists, which meeting was held in 1840, when the Association of 

 American Geologists was organized. He published numerous 

 papers ou scientific subjects in the American Journal of Science, 

 Journal of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences; and 

 "An Essay on the Ultimate Principles of Chemistry, Natural 

 Philosophy and Physiology" (Philadelphia, 1827). 



Edmund Ruffin. — See pages 93-98, above. He was by 

 profession an agriculturist; born in Prince George county 

 5th January, 1794; died at Redmore, Amelia county, Vir- 

 ginia, 15th June, 1865. During I810-'12 he attended Wil- 

 liam and Mary College. In 1813 he took charge of the estate 

 left him by his father, at a time of general agricultural depres- 

 sion ; and at once began various experiments looking to the 

 improvement of soils. In 1848 he tried the first experiment in 

 the use of lime (marl) as a supposed counteractant of the acidity 

 of the soil, and found the results greatly beneficial. 



During the few years following this the use of marl, through 

 Mr. Ruffin's exertions, extended rapidly throughout Eastern Vir- 

 ginia, generally with like beneficial effects. During 1841 and 

 1842 he was a member (and Secretary) of tlie Board of Agri- 

 culture of Virginia, and for several years he was President of 

 the State Agricultural Society. During 1843 he served as 

 ''Agricultural Surveyor" of South Carolina, and published a 

 report of his results (Columbia, 1843). From 1832 to 1842 he 

 edited the Farmers' Register, a journal which exerted a wide- 

 spread and beneficial influence on the agriculture of Virginia 

 and other Southern States. He was also the author of ''An 

 E-^say on Calcareous Manures" (Richmond, 1832), an "Essay on 

 Agricultural Education " (1833), and " Sketches of Lower North 

 Carolina" (Raleigh, 1861). 



Michael Tuomey. — Pages 98-103, above. Born in Cork, Ire- 

 land, September 20, 1805; died at Tuscaloosa, Ala., March 30, 

 1857. Came to New York, and studied at the Troy Polytech- 



