AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 15 



at Philadelphia, for promoting and propagating use- 

 ful knowledge." These minutes begin on the 25th of 

 April 1766 and end with the union of the two So- 

 cie&es, on the 20th of December 1768, comprising a 

 period within a few days of two years and nine 

 months. 



I am strongly inclined to believe that there was an 

 intermediate volume, comprising the four years be- 

 tween 1762 and 1766, which has, unfortunately, been 

 lost. Dr. Smith, in his above cited Eulogium on 

 Franklin, tells us "that a book containing many of 

 the questions discussed by the Junto, was, on the 

 formation of the American Philosophical Society, put 

 into his hands for the purpose of being digested, and 

 in due time published among the transactions of that 

 body." It was one of the stipulations at the time 

 of the union, that selections should be made from the 

 papers of the two Societies, should be published in 

 the transactions of the United Society, and that was 

 in fact done, as may be seen in the first Volume of 

 our Transactions. 



The date of that book only remains to be ascer- 

 tained. Fortunately Dr. Smith in his oration men- 

 tions several of the questions which that volume con- 

 tained, and one of them fixes its date. The question 

 is: "How may the possession of the Lakes be im- 

 proved to our advantage?" Now this question can 

 only have been asked after the cession of Canada in 

 1763, and not long after it, as the subject was then 



