PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



SPECIAL MEETING. MAY 14, 1878. 



V^ice-President HILGARD in some preliminary remarks on the 

 death of Professor JOSEPH HENRY, President of the Society, 

 stated that he had called a special meeting of the members, for the 

 purpose of taking some appropriate action on this solemn and 

 mournful occasion. 



The Secretary read a communication from Chief-Justice M. R. 

 WAITE, Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution, announcing the 

 death of Professor JOSEPH HENRY, the Secretary and Director of 

 the Institution, in this city, on Monday, May 13, at ten minutes past 

 noon, and inviting the Philosophical Society of Washington to 

 attend his funeral on Thursday next, May 16, at half-past four 

 o'clock P. M. 



On motion, a committee of three (Messrs. WELLING, W. B. 

 TAYLOR, and GILL ) was appointed to prepare suitable resolutions. 



Remarks on the character and labors of the deceased were made 

 by Messrs. HILGARD, JOHNSON, TONER, ALVORD, ABBE, MASON, 

 PARKER, GALLAUDET, and GEORGE TAYLOR. 



The special committee reported the following resolutions, which 

 were unanimously adopted : 



Resolved, That in the death of Professor JOSEPH HENRY the 

 Philosophical Society of Washington is called to deplore the loss of 

 its venerable and beloved President, who from its first institution, 

 and subsequently from year to year, has been unanimously chosen 

 to the position he filled among us, in deference not only to the 

 exalted fame which made him the chief ornament of our associ- 

 ation, but in grateful tribute as well to the varied philosophical 

 learning, the calm even-balanced judgment, and the serene wisdom 



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