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Special Meeting, Dec. 31. 



Present, thirty-nine members. 

 Mr. Du Ponceau, President, in the Chair. 



The President announced the death of the venerable Treas- 

 urer and Librarian of the Society, John Vaughan, Esquire, 

 which took place on the morning of the 30th instant, at the 

 age of 85 years, 11 months and 14 days; and laid before the 

 Society the following minute of the proceedings of the Officers 

 and Council on the occasion: — 



" At a special meeting of the Officers and Council of the 

 American Philosophical Society, held on the 30th of Decem- 

 ber, 1841, Mr. Du Ponceau, President of the Society in the 

 chair; the death of Mr. Vaughan having been announced, the 

 following minute and resolutions were adopted on motion of 

 Mr. Kane:— - 



" The Officers and Council of the American Philosophical 

 Society, affectionately mindful of the relations that have so 

 long and intimately subsisted between them and their venera- 

 ble associate, Mr. Vaughan, direct this memorial of their feel- 

 ing towards him to be entered upon their minutes. 



" They remember Mr. Vaughan as the patriarch represen- 

 tative of the Society, its oldest member, who had for more than 

 fifty years been an officer at this Board. They can never forget 

 his zeal for science in all its departments, his sympathy with 

 scientific men, and his unlimited devotion to the interests and 

 honour of this Institution. They have proved the warmth of his 

 social affections, and the constancy of his friendship. They have 

 seen his active, unwearied, yet discriminating benevolence, as 

 it extended itself through every circle; rejoicing with the hap- 

 py, cheering the distressed, counselling the friendless, and suc- 

 couring the needy. Like the rest of this community, they 

 have venerated the moral beauty of his daily life; and they 

 feel, that even in his peaceful death, he has not ceased to be a 



