THE

LAWS AND REGULATIONS

OF

THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,

OF NEW-YORK.

THERE shall be One President, Three Vice Presidents, Twelve Counsellors, Two Corresponding Secretaries, Two Recording Secretaries, Two Curators, and One Treasurer.

ART. I. In the absence of the President, one of the Vice Presidents shall take the chair, and in their absence, the oldest Counsellor present shall preside.

ART. II. All the officers of the society shall be chosen annually, by ballot, and the annual election shall be on the second Thursday of January in each year; and every choice shall require a majority of the votes.

ART. III. If any officer of the Society, the President and Treasurer excepted, shall absent himself from four successive meetings of the Society, (unless detained by sickness, or absence from the city, of which he shall give notice,) he shall be considered as having vacated his office, and another shall be chosen in his place.

ART. IV. There shall be a stated meeting of the Society on the second Thursday of every month, and nine members shall be sufficient to constitute a quorum.

ART. V. There shall be four quarterly meetings of the Society; viz. on the second Thursday in January, April, July, and October.

ART. VI. The election of members shall be by ballot, at one of the quarterly meetings, and at no other time; and no candidate shall be elected, unless he obtains the votes of three fourths of the members present at the election.

ART. VII. There shall be two classes of members, distinguished as resident and honorary. All members who reside in the state of NewYork shall be deemed resident members, and all others shall be called honorary.

ART. VIII. No person shall be eligible as an honorary member who has not been distinguished by his attainments in science, or his literary publications.

ART. IX. Before any member is elected, he must be recommended by at least two members of the Society, at a previous stated meeting.

ART. X. If a candidate who lives in the city of New-York be chosen, he shall, before he becomes a member, sign his name in a book kept for that purpose, declaring his assent to the laws and regulations of the Society, and shall pay ten dollars as his fee of admission, until otherwise directed by the Society.

ART. XI. All members of the Society residing in the city of NewYork, shall pay into the hands of the Treasurer five dollars annually, until the Society shall otherwise order; nor shall any member have the privilege of voting at any election of officers or members, who is in arrears for his admission money, or his annual contributions.

ART. XII. It shall be the duty of the Council to propose such additional laws and regulations as to them may appear necessary or useful in conducting the business of the Society, and such laws and regulations being by them agreed to and presented to the Society, shall be considered at the next quarterly meeting.

ART. XIII. No purchase, nor any disposition of money or property helonging to the Society, can be made, except by the advice of the Council.

ART. XIV. All communications that may be made to the Society shall, in the first instance, be referred to the Council for consideration. Those communications shall be classed under one of the following heads: 1st. Belles-lettres, Civil History, Antiquities, Moral and Political

Sciences.

2d. Medicine, Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, and Natural History. 3d. Mathematics, Astronomy, Navigation, and Geography.

4th. Husbandry, Manufactures, and the Useful Arts.

The Council, having formed itself into four classes, shall commit the several communications to one of those classes, whose duty it shall be to report on the same.

ART. XV. It shall be the duty of the Council to select, from time to time, from the papers that shall have been read before the Society, and submitted to their consideration, such as may appear most worthy of publication, and to determine, with the concurrence of the other officers of the Society, what papers shall be published: but the Society is never to be considered as expressing an opinion in favour of the facts stated, or reasoning contained, in such papers.

ART. XVI. It shall be the duty of the Recording Secretaries to read all communications to the Society, and to keep a journal of their proceedings, and upon the election of a member who resides in the city or state of New-York, it shall also be their duty to give to the member so elected, a notice of the same in a printed letter.

ART. XVII. When an honorary member may be chosen, it shall be the duty of the Corresponding Secretaries in like manner to give him notice of his election.

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ART. XVIII. The Curators shall have the care of the library, specimens of natural history, models of instruments and machines, and of such other matters belonging to the Society as may be committed to them.

ART. XIX. The Treasurer shall discharge the duties incident to such office in similar cases.

ART. XX. The duties of the officers shall be more particularly defined in the by-laws.

MEMBERS

OF

THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,

OF

NEW-YORK.

RESIDENT MEMBERS.

ROBERT ADRAIN, A. M. F. A. P. S. Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy,

Columbia College.

SAMUEL AKERLY, A. M.

JOHN ANTHON, Esq.

SAMUEL BARD, M. D. F. A. P. S. President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the State of New-York, Hyde Park, Dutchess County.

JOHN BOWDEN, D. D. Professor of Moral Philosophy and Belles Lettres, Columbia College.

NATHANIEL BOWEN, D. D.

HENRY BREVOort, Esq.

JOHN BRISTED, Esq.

ARCHIBALD BRUCE, M. D. F. A. P. S. Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

DE WITT CLINTON, LL. D. F. A. P. S. President of the American Academy of Arts. CADWALLADER D. COLDEN, Esq.

BENJAMIN DE WITT, M. D. Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of NewYork.

SIMEON DE WITT, F. A. P. S. President of the Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts

in the State of New-York, Albany.

JOHN H. EDDY, Member of the New-York Historical Society.

THOMAS EDDY, Member of the New-York Historical Society.

ANDREW ELLICOTT, Esq. Professer of Mathematics in the United States' Military Academy,

West Point.

THOMAS ADDIS EMMET, Esq.