70 KEPOKT OF THE COMMITTEE 



substantially bound, in one volume, with what was 

 originally called the second volume of the minutes 

 of the Junto. It is thus explained why there are 

 two sets of paging in the Junto minute book, which 

 makes it necessary to distinguish what were orig- 

 inally the first and second volumes, as the first and 

 second parts. 



The Committee, relying on the statement in Charles 

 Thomson's letter, date the beginning of the Society- 

 Junto in 1750. What happened between that year 

 and the 22nd of September, 1758, the date of the 

 earliest minutes, the Committee have no means of 

 determining. It is certain, however, that the So- 

 ciety had been meeting for sometime; for the book 

 opens abruptly with a minute of the above date, 

 without any indication of a commencement after an 

 interruption. It continued to meet with few inter- 

 ruptions, or omissions from the minutes, until 

 February 9th, 1761, when a hiatus occurs, until the 

 7th of August succeeding; though a note is given 

 in the handwriting of Charles Thomson, that in the 

 interval "the meetings 'were usually kept up, but 

 so few attended, and so little was done, that no 

 minutes were made." Junto Minute Book, Part 

 1, 81. In this note, an intermediate meeting on the 

 30th of July, is incidentally mentioned, at which 

 the "Company" agree to a set of Rules, prepared 

 by Edmund Physick and Charles Thomson, who had 

 been appointed to recollect and draw them up, "as 



