PROMOTION OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 11 



commencement of an establishment, which, they flatter themselves, will here- 

 after expand and flourish; good intentions and zeal are all they pretend to; 

 and they rely on the cooperation of scientific members to aid them in the im- 

 portant undertaking. 



At a meeting of the subscribers to this society on June 28, follow- 

 ing, a committee, composed of Samuel Harrison Smith, Rev. Dr. 

 Andrew Hunter, John Law, Dr. Alexander McWilliams and Dr. 

 Edward Cutbush, was appointed to frame a constitution, the draft 

 of which was submitted and unanimously agreed to on August 8. 1 

 The name was changed to " Columbian Institute for the Promotion 

 of Arts and Sciences," and the objects were denned as follows: 



Art. 2. The objects of the Institute shall be to collect, cultivate and distribute 

 the various vegetable productions of this and other countries, whether medici- 

 nal, esculent or for the promotion of arts and manufactures. 



Art. 3. To collect and examine the various mineral productions and natural 

 curiosities of the United States, and give publicity to every discovery which 

 they may have been enabled to make. 



Art. 4. To obtain information respecting the mineral waters of the United 

 States, their locality, analysis and utility ; together with such topographical re- 

 marks as may aid valetudinarians. 



Art. 5. To invite communications on agricultural subjects, on the manage- 

 ment of stock, their diseases and the remedies. 



Art. 6. To form a topographical and statistical history of the different dis- 

 tricts of the United States, noticing particularly the number and extent of 

 streams, how far navigable ; agricultural products, the imports and exports ; the 

 value of lands ; the climate, the state of the thermometer and barometer ; the 

 diseases which prevail during the different seasons ; the state of the arts and 

 manufactures; and any other information which may be deemed of general 

 utility. 



Art. 7. To publish annually, or whenever the Institute shall have become 

 possessed of a sufficient stock of important information, such communications 

 as may be of public utility ; and to give the earliest information, in the public 

 papers, of all discoveries that may have been made by or communicated to the 

 Institute. 



Some twenty months later, or on April 20, 1818, a charter 1 was 

 received from Congress, in which the only reference to the purposes 

 of the Institute was contained in section 4, namely : 



That the said corporation may procure, by purchase or otherwise, a suitable 

 building for the sittings of the said institution, and for the preservation and 

 safe-keeping of a library and museum ; and, also, a tract or parcel of land, for a 

 botanic garden, not exceeding five acres: Provided, That the amount of real 

 and personal property to be held by the said corporation shall not exceed one 

 hundred thousand dollars. 



On October 4, 1819, the general committee of the Institute re- 

 ported, 



that since the last annual meeting of the Institute the secretary of the com- 

 mittee has frequently advertised for monthly meetings of the committee; and 



1 Printed in full in the appendix. 

 6343°— 17 2 



