MINUTES. XV 



one to the belief that these ]\Iinutes must have been transcribed in 

 or after 1830, for this error could scarcely have been made in 1780. 



Owing to the lack of any record of certain meetings which, under 

 the Laws, should have been held, and particularly in the absence 

 of any record of the election of members who were beHeved to 

 have been elected in that year, Dr. Hays requested J\Iiss Kirkpatrick, 

 the Assistant to the Secretaries, to make a search through the files 

 of that period of the Pennsylvania Packet, The Pennsylvania Jour- 

 nal and The Pennsylvania Gazette for any notices which they might 

 contain of the Society's meetings of that year, so as to supply, as 

 far as possible, the deficiencies in the ^Minutes. This she did with 

 the following interesting results. 



In the issue of the Packet for September 16, 1779, there appears 

 an advertisement of a meeting of the Society, as follows : 



" The American Philosophical Society are to meet at the College 

 to-morrow evening at Seven o'clock agreeable to their Laws." 



In the issue of December 2, 1779, appears the following adver- 

 tisement of a meeting to be held on December 3 : 



" The Members of the American Philosophical Society, are to 

 meet at Six o'clock to-morrow evening agreeable to their rules ; and 

 are requested to be punctual in their attendance." 



Further, an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Journal and 

 Weekly Advertiser of February 9, 1780, gives notice that 



" the Assembly has granted the Members permission to bring in a 

 Bill to' incorporate the Society ; a draught has been prepared by a 

 Committee appointed for that purpose, and the Society stands ad- 

 journed until this evening when it is expected there will be a general 

 attendance of members, at the University, to consider the same." 



The Minutes contain no record of these meetings. It is, of 

 course, possible, although improbable, that no quorum was present 

 and that there were no IMinutes to be recorded, but it seems desirable 

 at least to preserve the record that these meetings of September 17 

 and December 3, 1779, and February 9, 1780, were duly called, and 

 possibly the proceedings at them may be discovered later. 



The Minutes of 1779 appear to have been carefully kept, although 



