SOME FORMER MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN 

 PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



By THOMAS WILLING BALCH. 

 (Read April iS, 1912.) 



The American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society 

 on this side of the Atlantic, and one of the most ancient in the world, 

 was fortunate in its founder in a double sense. Franklin was not 

 only a man of much learning and active in his advancement of 

 " useful knowledge," but also he embodied in his own career the 

 three classes of men from which most of our membership has been 

 recruited since the founding of this society, whether we take it to 

 begin with the founding of the Junto in 1727, as Du Ponceau so 

 ably maintains,^ or whether we place it as late as 1743. Franklin 

 was a statesman, as his activites at Paris and London and here in 

 Philadelphia sufficiently attest.^ He w^as a scientist, as his numerous 

 scientific discoveries prove, and he was a man of letters, as his papers 

 abundantly show.^ In the treaty negotiated in 1785 by Franklin for 

 America with the then small kingdom of Prussia, two members of the 



^ Joseph G. Rosengarten, " The American Philosophical Society," Phila- 

 delphia, 1909, pp. 13-14- 



° In 1780, before the adoption of the Constitution of the United States 

 and when Pennsylvania was still an independent State at war with Great 

 Britain, the General Assembly of Pennsylvania granted a most liberal charter 

 to the Society which contains the following unique provision : 



" That it shall and may be lawful for the said Society by their proper 

 officers, at all times, whether in peace or war, to correspond with learned 

 Societies as well as individual learned men, of any nation or country, upon 

 matters merely belonging to the business of the said Society, such as the 

 mutual communication of their discoveries and proceedings in Philosophy 

 and Science; the- procuring books, apparatus, natural curiosities, and such 

 other articles of intelligence as are usually exchanged between learned bodies 

 for furthering their common pursuits ; Provided always, that such corre- 

 spondence of the said Society be at all times open to the inspection of the 

 Supreme Executive Council of this Commonwealth." 



* The society possesses seventy-eight per cent, of Franklin's known papers. 



580 



