4 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 
tion of their studies ; but at the same time entirely subordinate to its Charter 
and By-Laws. 
Under a belief that pure scientific zeal is never pretentious, and to avoid the 
confusion which might possibly arise from identity of appellations of different 
officers in the same organization, names and titles for the officers of the depart- 
ments proposed have been selected with a view to practical, rather than to 
merely honorary distinction, which titles should be clearly indicative of sub- 
ordination. 
Your Committee has never been unmindful of the interests of the Academy, 
nor of the grave influence which the measure now recommended is calculated 
to exert on the prosperity of the Academy ; which is regarded to be inseparable 
from the advancement of science. After patiently viewing the subject in all 
its various aspects, it is sincerely believed that only good can accrue from 
amending the By-Laws as proposed. But, even should experience prove that 
expectation has been disappointed, the Academy may be brought back to its 
present organization, by repealing the By-Laws which it is now solicited to 
enact. 
The provisions herewith submitted, it is supposed, will meet all the practical 
wants of scientific men devoted to the cultivation of special departments of 
natural history, and in this way remove every necessity for forming new so- 
cieties, and in a great degree, if not entirely, annul the allurements which may 
be held out to members of the Academy, to labor under the fostering care of 
newly established organizations. 
It is designed that the proceedings of the Departments shall be laid before 
the Academy at every meeting for business, in order that the results of their 
investigation may be communicated to each other, and particular information 
acquired by one may be made common to all. Natural history is not to be 
abandoned, because biologists prefer to investigate the laws of genesis and 
vitality, and physicists delight to examine the properties, the influences and 
motions of the atmosphere and of inorganic matter. The fields of entomology, 
ornithology, mammalogy, &c., are neither invaded nor diminished by the con- 
templated creation of Departments. A profitable emulation may be provoked 
among the members of the Academy, by the feature of the proposed organiza- 
tion. Therefore the interest of the ordinary meetings of the Academy may be 
enhanced, and the meeting for business will become more generally attractive. 
The whole is respectfully submitted. 
Thomas B. Wilson, 
Robert Bridges, 
Samuel Powel, 
E. DURAND, 
Isaac Lea, 
W. S. W. Ruschenberger, 
Whereupon tlae amendments to the By-Laws proposed were read, 
considered and passed to a second reading. 
The following paper was read : — 
Hall of the Academy of Natural Sciences, ) 
January 26ih, 1858. ) 
In the event of the proposed additions and alterations of the By-Laws being 
agreed to by the Academy, the undersigned members request that they may be 
constituted the Biological Department of the Academy of Natural Sciences 
of Philadelphia. 
Joseph Leidy, M. D., 
William A. Hammond, M. D.. 
Charles F. Beck, M. D., 
J. Cheston Morris, M. D., 
James M. Corse, M. D., 
J. H. Slack, A. B., 
William Camac, M. D., 
C. S. Boker, M. D., 
S. Weir Mitchell, M. D., 
Walter T. Atlee, M. D., 
[Jan, 
