14 



Proceedings, February 7, 1901. 



portion of clay. That this is the case, as compared with sodium salts, 

 is beyond doubt (see paper by the late Dr. A. Voelcker, " On the Com- 

 position of the Waters of Land Drainage," 'Journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England,' 1874) ; but the series of analyses of 

 the Broadbalk subsoils that has now been made by means of weak 

 citric acid solution, shows that potash, though " fixed " relatively to 

 soda, is far more migratory than phosphoric acid, and descends much 

 lower into the subsoil. At the same time it appears probable that a 

 portion of it passes into a fixed and stable form of combination, from 

 which weak citric acid fails to dislodge it. 



The results yielded by the samples of soil and subsoil taken from 

 the same plots at the different periods afford instructive comparisons, 

 notwithstanding the age of the earlier samples at the time of their 

 examination, which might have been expected to be responsible for 

 considerable modifications in the condition of the less stable chemical 

 compounds contained in them. . 



In consequence of the death of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen 

 Victoria, which took place on the 22nd of January, the meetings 

 of the Society were suspended, by order of the President, until after 

 the funeral of Her late Majesty, which took place on the 2nd 

 February. 



February 7, 1901. 



Sir WILLIAM HUGGINS, K.C.B., D.C.L, President, in the Chair. 



The President, in moving that a dutiful Address of Condolence 

 and Homage be drawn up and presented by the Council of the Society 

 to His Most Gracious Majesty the King, said : — ■ 



" The crape upon our Mace would remind us, if indeed we needed to 

 be reminded, of the sorrow which is uppermost in every heart. We 

 mourn to-day the greatest Queen the world has known — truly great by 

 the supreme example She set, in Her own person, of sustained nobility of 

 purpose, and of devotion to duty, and by the influence of Her wise and 

 understanding heart, for the world's good, upon the councils of the 

 Empire. We mourn more than a great Queen — a gracious Lady who 

 by the brightness of Her domestic virtues, and Her rare power of kindly 

 sympathy with Her subjects in all their joys and sorrows, had in a 

 real sense become the Mother of Her Peoples. As Fellows of this 

 Society, we mourn further a Sovereign Patron, who b}^ Her enlightened 

 encouragement and protection, has made possible through the sixty- 



