V 11 1 PREFATORY NOTICE. 



venerated president William Tilghman, Dr Adam Seybert, 

 Mr Franqois Adrian Vanderkemp, Mr Charles Wilson Peale, 

 Dr Samuel Brown, Dr Stephen Elliott, the founder of the 

 Philosophical Society of Charleston, South Carolina, and 

 Professor John D. Godman; whose deaths have left a void 

 in this society which will with difficulty be filled. 



Among those of our foreign members, of whom death has 

 deprived the learned world as well as ourselves, we particu- 

 larly notice that illustrious friend and patron of science, Count 

 Nicholas Romanzoff, Nicholas Fuss, Sir Humphry Davy, 

 Count Lanjuinais, Duke de Liancourt, Bishop Munter of 

 Copenhagen, Thunberg, Vater; whose names are celebrated 

 throughout America as well as Europe. We have also lost 

 Salazar of Colombia, Stockier of Lisbon, and Torombert of 

 Lyons, — all more or less distinguished in the literary and 

 scientific world. At the same time, other names have been 

 added to our list, of men whom the society are proud to 

 reckon among their associates. 



The contents of this volume partly belong to the physical 

 and partly to the moral sciences. In this the society has 

 followed the example of several learned societies in Europe, 

 and particularly of the Royal Academy of Berlin. 



