74 KEPOKT OF THE COMMITTEE 



Knowledge, " which title it continued to bear until 

 its union with the Philosophical Society on the 2nd 

 of January 1769. On the occasion of this last 

 change of name, the Laws were much altered, the 

 Junto qualifications were dispensed with, and an 

 6 1 Obligation " to be signed by members, substituted. 

 Instead of having merely a Chairman, Secretary, and 

 Treasurer, the Laws called for a President, Vice- 

 President, two Secretaries, three curators, and a 

 Treasurer. The election under this new organiza- 

 tion took place on the 4th of November, and Dr. 

 Franklin was chosen first President, as has been 

 already mentioned in a former part of this Eeport. 

 This sketch of the origin and progress of the Society- 

 Junto is sufficient for this Report. For the details, 

 the Society is referred to the tabular statement, 

 and to the Abstract from the Junto-Minute book, 

 marked B. 



The Committee have already mentioned that they 

 agree with Mr. Du Ponceau in believing it probable 

 that meetings of the Society-Junto took place within 

 the long period for which we possess no minutes; 

 but they cannot go so far as to suppose with him, 

 that an intermediate volume of minutes did exist, but 

 was lost, comprising that period. Our President 

 rests his opinion mainly on the fact that Dr. Smith, 

 in his Eulogium on Franklin, tells us "that a book 

 containing many of the questions discussed by the 

 Junto, was, on the formation of the American Philo- 



