PROCEEDINGS. 
413 
Mr. F. H. King presented Some results of studies relating to 
water-soluble salts of field-soils. He showed the magnitude of 
the changes during the season which take place under different 
field-crops in the nitrates, bicarbonates, etc., as the crops grow, 
and the movements in the soil toward the surface as influenced 
by different forms of tillage. In conclusion, the wide bearing 
of these results on practical agriculture was pointed out. [Pub¬ 
lished in fuller form in IT. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau 
of Soils, Bulletin No. 26; also privately printed.] 
The paper was discussed with especial reference to its sociolog¬ 
ical bearings by Messrs. Fireman, We ad, and Gore. 
567th Meeting. Aprill 11, 1903. 
President Gore in the chair. 
Thirty-two persons present. 
Mr. Marvin exhibited a Seismograph sheet showing a slight 
earthquake shock on March 15, 1903, and pointed out the pecu¬ 
liarities of waves. 
President Gore described the International Bibliography of 
Mathematics, now in course of publication. Thus far 11 sets of 
100 cards each, at 12 francs per set, have been published. 
Mr. T. J. J. See then presented a Historical sketch of Olaus 
Roemer, discoverer of the velocity of light. Born in 1644, and 
living till 1710, he was a contemporary of Newton’s. Nine years 
were spent in Paris under Picard; the rest of his life in Den¬ 
mark. Nearly all of the original records of his work were de¬ 
stroyed by fire at Copenhagen in 1728. His most famous dis¬ 
covery was made in 1675. But besides this, he should be re¬ 
membered as the inventor of the meridian-circle, the prime- 
vertical, the altazimuth, and the equatorial telescope. [Pub¬ 
lished in Popular Astronomy, Dec., 1902.] 
Remarks on the paper were made by the President. 
Mr. A. L. Day then discussed The melting-point of a glass, 
basing his paper on recent studies of borax-glass, the nominal 
melting-point of which is about 730° C. An electric furnace 
was used, and a thermo element sensitive to 1/200 of 1° C. With 
