RECORDS OF MEETINGS. 827 



At the Stated Meeting of the Academy in March, several amend- 

 ments to the Statutes were adopted upon the favorable report of 

 the Committee to which they had been duly referred. At the same 

 meeting, further important amendments were proposed, chiefly for the 

 purpose of defining some of the newly-created functions and powers of 

 the Council, of enlarging the functions of the Class Committees, and 

 of prescribing the procedure of both bodies with respect to the nomi- 

 nation and election of Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members. These 

 new amendments also proposed an increase in the number of Council- 

 lors from nine to twelve and of their terms of service from three years 

 to four years, thereby insuring always to each Section of each Class at 

 least one representative in the Council, which, with the eight ex-officio 

 members, elected annually for terms of one year, would then be com- 

 posed of twenty persons. 



These amendments having been duly referred to a Committee for 

 consideration and report, it was suggested from the floor, that as the re- 

 cent adoption by the Academy of the several far-reaching recommenda- 

 tions of the Committee on Policy necessitated so many alterations in 

 the Statutes, other changes, doubtless, would, in consequence, suggest 

 themselves to the Committee ; and the hope was expressed that it 

 would feel warranted in incorporating in its report upon the amend- 

 ments then referred to it such further changes as it might deem ex- 

 pedient. Whereupon, it was unanimously voted by the Academy that 

 the Committee be authorized and requested to act accordingly. 



The present Code of Statutes was adopted on the thirtieth of May, 

 1854. When the last printed edition appeared, in June, 1910, it had 

 been then amended twenty-one times. Among the inevitable results of 

 so many changes are tautology, repetition, and the distribution under 

 two or more heads of subjects which should be treated in a single 

 chapter. There are also strange omissions. For instance, there are 

 no Articles describing the Corporate Seal of the Academy or providing 

 for the attestation and delivery of the Academy's Diploma ; indeed, 

 the fact that the Society has a Common Seal is not even recognized, 

 save by a casual allusion to it in the Chapter defining the duties of 

 the President, while there is no mention whatever of a Diploma. 



The new powers given to the Council by the amendments adopted 

 in March last necessitated the draughting of an entirely new Chapter ; 

 while a proper recognition of the Seal required another. On the other 

 hand, it was desirable that certain chapters should be consolidated, and 

 repetitions eliminated, especially in the Chapter on Standing Com- 

 mittees, where three lines of print are five times repeated, and three 

 other lines are four time repeated. 



