DATE OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE SOCIETY. 167 



dispose of the question whether or not the origin of the 

 American Society is to be traced to the Junto founded 

 by Franklin in 1727; and it is this question which your 

 present Committee lias considered. We have carefully 

 reviewed the evidence presented to the Committee of 

 1840, which is now printed and accompanies this re 

 port ; we have given due attention to such new evidence 

 as could be found ; and we have been guided by the 

 same principle that was in the minds, though perhaps 

 not quite enough in the view, of the older Committee, 

 which has been formulated in the ruling of the Car 

 negie Foundation for the case of educational institu 

 tions, to wit, that &quot;by date of founding is meant the 

 year in which the institution was established, out of 

 which the present college or university has developed.&quot; 

 The American Philosophical Society as at present 

 constituted, was formed in 1769 by the union of the 

 society originally of the same name, founded by Frank 

 lin in 1743, with a body known as the American Society 

 for Promoting and Propagating Useful Knowledge, 

 which was the new name formally adopted by the Junto 

 in December 1766. Was this Junto, later known as the 

 American Society, the Junto founded by Franklin in 

 1727, or, as the older Committee s report contends, was 

 it a society established about 1750 in close imitation of 

 Franklin s Junto, conceivably by sons or friends of the 

 members of the older society, with the result that two 

 societies under the same name of &quot;The Junto&quot; existed 

 for some time side by side? 



