PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



NATIONAL INSTITUTION 



FOR THE 



PROMOTION OF SCIENCE. 



Stated Meeting, March 8, 1841. 



Present, forty-eight Members. 

 Col. John J. Abert in the Chair. 



The Meeting proceeded to the election of certain officers required 

 by the amended Constitution : 



Hon. Joel R. Poinsett was chosen President; of which he was 

 immediately informed, by a committee appointed to wait upon him 

 for that purpose ; and soon after appeared and took the chair. 



Peter Force was elected Vice President. 



The President elect then addressed the meeting : 



Gentlemen : I should do injustice to my feelings on this occasion, if I refrained 

 from expressing my grateful acknowledgments for the honor you have just confer- 

 red on me, and my high estimate of it. 



Having always entertained the opinion, that the distinction attached to office is 

 in proportion to the means it affords to serve our country ; and firmly believing that 

 the Institution over which your suffrages have called me to preside, may, if proper. 

 ly conducted, become extensively useful to all classes of our fellow-citizens, I feel 

 proud and gratified at being placed at its head. No effort on my part shall be want, 

 ing to promote the objects and interests of the Institution, and I rely with confi- 

 dcnce upon your indulgence and cooperation to make those efforts successful. 



I shall bo necessarily often absent from you; but the character and ability of the 

 gentleman you have been pleased to associate with me, ensure at all times a diligent 

 attention to the duties of your presiding officer. 



This is the first cxporimcnt that has been made of a popular Institution of 



