PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
THE MEETING OF APRIL, 1844. 
NOTICE. 
The following pages embrace those portions of the proceedings of 
the National Institute which led to the meeting of April, 1844, to¬ 
gether with such parts of the exercises of that meeting as it has 
been found proper to publish. 
It was originally intended to publish the proceedings of the April 
meeting, in extenso; but it was discovered at an early period that 
this would be both inexpedient and impracticable. Some of the 
papers were not exactly adapted for publication. Some had already 
been made public, though not printed. Others had been printed. 
Several were withdrawn, whilst others were never submitted for pub¬ 
lication by their authors; and a few would have required costly illus¬ 
trations. For these and other reasons, the committee, of which Mr. 
Spencer was chairman, recommended to the Institute that a very 
small number of the papers should be selected to be printed. 
Another consideration of an imperative nature compelled the Insti¬ 
tute to adopt this course, viz: the want of funds sufficient to enable 
it to publish the proceedings more at large. This is the chief reason 
why the whole work, (the third bulletin and the proceedings of April,) 
has been so condensed as to deprive it of much of that attractiveness 
and fulness which the copious and interesting materials on hand would 
have imparted to it. 
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