Ivi Annual Report of the Council. 



slides, sundry collections of dredgings, etc., an album of mem- 

 bers' photographs, besides a large tin box containing various 

 papers, books, etc., the whole of which pass into the care of the 

 Society now that the Section is disbanded. It is with much 

 regret that the Council of the Section have, for some time, past 

 seen no alternative to the proposals which have been to-night 

 adopted. The Section was instituted in December, 1858, and was 

 therefore within measurable distance of its Jubilee. It has done 

 much useful work during that period, and the examination of its 

 minute books will show that hardly a meeting was held that 

 did not produce something that was worth hearing or seeing. 

 I am, yours faithfully, 



J. COSMO MELVILL, 



Hon. Sec. 



Cato M. Guldberg was born in Christiania, August nth, 

 1836, and entered the University of Christiania in 1854. He 

 devoted himself to the study of science and mathematics, and in 

 1859 passed the State examination for Teachers in those subjects. 

 He also won a Travelling Scholarship to be held for a year 

 abroad. In i860 he was appointed teacher in the Royal 

 Norwegian Board School, and, in 1862, teacher at the Royal 

 Military High School. 



At this time he commenced the work on Chemical Affinity 

 in conjunction with Waage — work which was destined in a few 

 years to become classical. In 1867 he was appointed 

 " Universitats-stipendiat " (giving one lecture a week), and, in 

 1869 was elected to the Chair of Applied Mathematics at 

 Christiania. 



Guldberg and Waage's great work " Etudes sur les affinites 

 chimiques " appeared in 1867. The older theory of chemical 

 affinity due to Bergman, who supposed that each body had a 

 specific "attraction" for every other, had been modified 

 by Berthollet who introduced the idea that chemical action 

 depends not only on ' affinity ' but also on the quantity of the 



