PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
NATIONAL INSTITUTION 
FOR THE 
PROMOTION OF SCIENCE. 
Stated Meeting , March 8, 1841. 
Present, forty-eight Members. 
Col. John J. Abert in the Chair. 
The Meeting proceeded to the election of certain officers required 
by the amended Constitution : 
Hon. Joel R. Poinsett was chosen President; of which he was 
immediately informed, by a committee appointed to wait upon him 
for that purpose; and soon after appeared and took the chair. 
Peter Force was elected Vice President. 
The President elect then addressed the meeting: 
Gentlemen : I should do injustice to my feelings on this occasion, if I refrained 
from expressing my grateful acknowledgments for the honor you have just confer¬ 
red on me, and my high estimate of it. 
Having always entertained the opinion, that the distinction attached to office is 
in proportion to the means it affords to serve our country; and firmly believing that 
the Institution over which your suffrages have called me To preside, may, if proper¬ 
ly conducted, become extensively useful to all classes of our fellow-citizens, I feel 
proud and gratified at being placed at its head. No effort on my part shall be want- 
i ng to promote the objects and interests of the Institution, and I rely with confi¬ 
dence upon your indulgence and cooperation to make those efforts successful. 
I shall be necessarily often absent from you; but the character and ability of the 
gentleman you have been pleased to associate with me, ensure at all times a diligent 
attention to the duties of your presiding officer. 
This is the first experiment that has been made of a popular Institution of 
