JAMES EDWARD OLIVER. 369 



left him little time for the preparation of his material for publication. 

 He has alluded to this in one of his official reports. 



In the Appendix to the Annual Report of the President of Cornell 

 University for 1886-87, Professor Oliver (see Cajori, he. cit.) writes : 

 " We are not unmindful of the fact that by publishiug more we could 

 help to strengthen the university, and that we ought to do so, if it were 

 possible. Indeed, every one of us five is now preparing work for 

 publication, or expects to be doing so this summer, but such work 

 progresses very slowly, because the more immediate duties of each 

 day leave us so little of that freshness without which good theoretical 

 work cannot be done. . . . The greatest hindrance to the success of 

 the department, especially in the higher kinds of work, lies, as we 

 think, in the excessive amount of teaching required of each teacher, — 

 commonly from seventeen to twenty or more hours per week." 



I am indebted to Mrs. Oliver for the following list of Professor 

 Oliver's published notes and papers connected with mathematics. 



Demonstration of the Pythagorean Proposition. Math. Monthly, Vol. I., 



1858, p. 10. 

 On Mr. ColUns's Property of Circulates. Math. Monthly, Vol. I., 1859, 



p. 345. 

 Introduction to Treatise on Determinants. Math. Monthly, Vol. III., 



1860, p. 86. 

 Partial Investigation on the best approximate Representation of all the 



Mutual Ratios of k Quantities by those of Simple Integers. Proceed- 

 ings of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. VI. 

 Mathematical Note on Linguistic Resemblances. Trans. Amer. Philos. 



Soc, Vol. XIII. 

 On some Focal Properties of Quadrics. Proceedings American Academy, 



Vol. VII. 

 Note on Query concerning Ball held in Jet of Water. Analyst, I. 29, 



1874. 

 On the Law of Distribution for certain Plant-Numbers. A Method of 



finding the Law of Linear Elasticity in a ]\Ietal. Abstract Proceedings 



Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sc, Vol. XXXL 1882. 

 A Projective Relation among Infinitesimal Elements. Annals of Math., 



Vol. I., May, 1SS4. 

 On the General Linear Differential Equation. Annals of Math., Vol. III., 



August, 1887. 

 Elementary Notes. I. General and Logico-math. Notation. Aunals of 



Math., Vol. IV., December, 1888. 

 Preliminary Paper on Sun's Rotation. Read before the Spring Meeting 



of the National Academy, 1888. 



The Soaring of Birds. Science, January 4, 1889. 



VOL. XXXI. (n. S. XXIII.) 24 



