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CONSTITUTION. 
Art. I. This Society shall be named “ The Na¬ 
tional Institution for the Promotion of Science.” 
Art. II. It shall hold its meetings at the City 
of Washington. 
Art. III. It shall be composed of Resident, 
Corresponding, and Honorary Members. 
Art. IV. The Resident members shall be per¬ 
sons residing in the District of Columbia ; Corres¬ 
ponding members shall be persons residing out of 
the District of Columbia, who wish to aid the In¬ 
stitution by their contributions or communications; 
and the class of Honorary members shall be com¬ 
posed of eminent men residing out of the District 
, of Columbia. 
Art. V. Resident members removing from the 
District of Columbia shall, on request, be transfer¬ 
red to the list of corresponding members, and vice 
versa. But corresponding members may, at their 
option, be recorded and considered as resident 
members. 
Art. VI. The Officers of the Institution shall 
consist of a President, Vice President, Twelve Di¬ 
rectors, a Treasurer, a Corresponding, and a Re¬ 
cording Secretary; provided, that no member shall 
hold more than one of the offices created by this 
article at the same time, but that an acceptance of 
one shall be considered as a refusal of all others. 
Art. VII. The Officers shall constitute a Board 
of Management of the fiscal concerns of the Insti¬ 
tution; and any five members of the Board shall 
be a quorum for the transaction of ordinary busi¬ 
ness. 
Art. VIII. The Secretaries of the Departments 
of State, Treasury, War, and Navy, and the At¬ 
torney General, and Postmaster General of the 
United States, for the time being, shall, with their 
consent, be Directors of the Institution ; but upon 
the refusal of one or more of them to accede to the 
request of the Institution, such Director or Direc¬ 
tors shall be chosen in the same manner as is here¬ 
in provided for tire appointment of other officers. 
The officers shall be elected for the term of one 
year, or until their successors shall be appointed, 
from among the resident members of the Institu¬ 
tion. This election shall take place at the Annual 
Meeting; and each member, who is duly qualified, 
and shall be present at such meeting, shall have a 
vote in said election. 
Art. IX. The Annual Meeting shall be held on 
the first Monday in each year, or as soon thereafter 
as may be convenient; the stated meetings on the 
second Monday in each month ; and special meet¬ 
ings whenever five resident members shall concur 
in a request to that effect. 
Art. X. The President, Vice President, or, in 
their absence, one of the Directors, in order of 
seniority, as named in Article VIII, shall preside 
1 at all meetings of the Institution, or if neither of 
I them shall be present, the meeting shall elect its 
chairman. 
Art. XI. The election of members shall be by 
ballot; and an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the 
members present at the meeting shall be necessary 
to the election. The candidate shall be nominated 
-to the Institution at a regular meeting, and ballot- 
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ed for at the next regular meeting ; and if there be 
more candidates than one, they shall be balloted 
for separately. 
Art. XII. This Constitution shall be signed by 
all persons present at its adoption, who are de¬ 
sirous of becoming members of the Institution; 
which signature shall be proof of their membership. 
Resident members subsequently admitted shall 
subscribe the same on their admission; and ne¬ 
glect to do so for two months after their election 
shall render such election void. Each resident 
member shall pay to the Treasurer five dollars on 
his admission; and five dollars on the first Monday 
of January in every year thereafter, to aid in de¬ 
fraying necessary expenses, and for such other pur¬ 
poses as the Board of Management may direct. 
Art. XIII. No resident member shall vote at 
any stated or other meeting of the Institution, on 
any question whatever, who has not paid his sub¬ 
scription and annual dues, or who shall not have 
attended a meeting of the Institution within one 
year previous to such meeting. 
Art. XIV. The Institution shall have power to 
appoint Curators and others for the preservation 
and arrangement of its collections. The resident 
and corresponding members shall exert themselves 
to procure specimens of natural history, ike. ; and 
the said specimens shall be placed in the Cabinet, 
under the superintendence of a Curator or Cura¬ 
tors, so appointed. All such specimens, &c., unless 
deposited specially, shall remain in the Cabinet, 
and, in case of the dissolution of the Institution, 
shall become the property of the United States. 
Art. XV. The resident members of the Institu¬ 
tion shall be divided into such Departments as may 
hereafter be determined upon. The members com¬ 
posing each department shall especially be charged 
with the subjects embraced therein, and commu¬ 
nicate to the Institution the result of their inquiries; 
but every member shall have the privilege of ma- 
! king such communications as he may think pro- 
! per on any subject connected with the designs of 
the Institution. 
Art. XVI. The various collections of the Insti¬ 
tution shall be placed in the apartments which may 
be designated for that purpose by a majority of the 
Directors. 
Art. XVII. This Constitution, with the excep¬ 
tions of Articles 6, 8, 10, 14, and 16, or so much 
thereof as relates to the office of directors, their 
duties, privileges, or powers, or the purposes or ! 
place of keeping of the collections of the Institu- | 
tion, shall be subject to alterations and additions at 
any meeting of the Institution, provided notice of 
a motion for such alteration or addition shall have 
been given and recorded at a preceding regular 
meeting. No alterations or amendments shall ever 
be made in the articles above excepted, without the 
consent of a majority of the Directors. 
Art. XVIII. A code of by-laws for the regula¬ 
tion of the business of the Board of Management, 
and the annual and other meetings of the Institu¬ 
tion, and for matters relating to non-attendance, 
privileges, duties of officers, Ike., shall be prepared 
j by a committee to be appointed for that purpose. 
