14 



send a sealed letter containing the same motto, device or signature, 

 and subscribed with the real name and place of residence of the author. 



2. Persons of any nation, sect, or denomination whatever, shall be 

 admitted as candidates for this premium. 



3. No discovery, invention or improvement shall be entitled to this 

 premium, which hath been already published, or for which the author 

 hath been publicly rewarded elsewhere. 



4. The candidate shall communicate his discovery, invention or im- 

 provement, either in the English, French, German, or Latin language. 



5. All such communications shall be publicly read or exhibited to 

 the Society at some stated meeting, not less than one month previous 

 to the day of adjudication, and shall at all times be open to the in- 

 spection of such members as shall desire it. But no member shall 

 carry home with him the communication, description, or model, except 

 the officer to whom it shall be entrusted; nor shall such officer part 

 with the same out of his custody, v/ithout a special order of the So- 

 ciety for that purpose. 



6. The Society, having previously referred the several communica- 

 tions from candidates for the premium, then depending, to the conside- 

 ration of the twelve counsellors and other officers of the Society, and 

 having received their report thereon, shall, at one of their stated meet- 

 ings in the month of December, annually, after the expiration of this 

 current year (of the time and place, together with the particular occa- 

 sion of which meeting, due notice shall be previously given, by public 

 advertisement) proceed to final adjudication of the said premium; and, 

 after due consideration had, a vote shall first betaken on this question, 

 viz., Whether any of the communications then under inspection be 

 worthy of the proposed premium? If this question be determined in 

 the negative, the whole business shall be deferred till another year; 

 but if in the affirmative, the Society shall proceed to determine by bal- 

 lot, given by the members at large, the discovery, invention, or im- 

 provement most useful dnd worthy; and that discovery, invention, 

 or improvement, which shall be found to have a majority of concur- 

 ring votes in its favour, shall be successful ; and then, and not till then, 

 the sealed letter accompanying the crowned performance shall be 

 opened, and the name of the author announced as the person entitled 

 to the said premium. 



7. No member of the Society who is a candidate for the premium 

 then depending, or who halh not previously declared to the Society, 

 that he has considered and weighed, according to the best of his judg- 

 ment, the comparative meritsof the several claims then under conside- 



