32 dall: origin of philosophical society 



Sands, and Admiral Jenkins, and from the Naval Observatory 

 Asaph Hall, Simon Newcomb, and William Harkness. These men 

 were all distinguished. I suppose no Society of such a small 

 number of persons as this ever had quite so many distinguished 

 men in proportion to the whole number. I have always felt it 

 a very great honor to have been permitted to join with them in 

 calling myself a founder of the Society. 



The original number o founders, that is, those whose signa- 

 tures were on the list for the formation of the Society, was 43, 

 including Professor Henry who proposed the name. Philosophi- 

 cal Society of Washington, giving to the adjective its original 

 meaning implying the inclusion of all branches of science. No 

 list of members was published in the Bulletin until 1874 when the 

 number was 128, there having been four deaths of members, but 

 during that time 85 additional members became connected with 

 the Society. Professor Henry presided over the Society until 

 his death in 1878. 



The Bulletin, which was issued shortly after the formation of 

 the Society, when enough material had accmnulated to form a 

 volume, was reprinted at Professor Henry's suggestion, as a vol- 

 ume of the Miscellaneous Collections of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. That procedure was continued during Professor Baird's 

 lifetime. The publications were made up, edited, and printed 

 by the Society, the Smithsonian Institution publication being 

 made by the use of stereotype plates. The reprint was not 

 issued until 1888. 



Meetings were held at the offices of the Surgeon-General in 

 the old Ford Theater Building, and were extremely interesting. 

 The Society was made up of men who could say something 

 interesting on almost every branch of science. 



We had some very remarkable work presented to the Society. 

 We were privileged, I think, to have the first testing of the tele- 

 phone. Mr. Bell was introduced by one of the members of the 

 Society. A telephone wire and receiver were strung up in the 

 room where we had our meeting and the transmitter was taken 

 off into another room at some distance and each member of the 

 Society was enabled to hear communications that came from the 



