[iv]

ADVERTISEMENT.

The following are the Rules adopted for the govern ment of Committees in the choice of papers for publication.

FIRST. "That the grounds of the Committee's "choice of papers for the press, should always be “the importance or singularity of the subjects,

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or the advantageous manner of treating them, "without pretending to answer, or to make the "the society answerable, for the certainty of the "facts, or propriety of the reasonings, contained "in the several papers so published, which must "still rest on the credit or judgment of their re"spective authors.

SECONDLY. "That neither the Society, nor the "Committee of the press, do ever give their "opinion as a body, upon any paper they may "publish, or upon any subject of Art or Nature that comes before them."

LIST OF THE OFFICERS

OF THE

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,

For the Year 1804.

PATRON. THOMAS M'KEAN, GOVERNOR of the STATE of PENNSYLVANIA.

El Marques de Casa Yrujo, Minis. Plenip. & Envoy Extra. from the Court of Spain, to the U. S.

Peter Blecher Olfen, late Danish Minis. Res. and Cons. Gen. to the U. S. Letombe, late Cons. Gen. from the French Republic.

Philip Rofe Roume, member of the French National Institute.

El Cavallero Don. Valentin de Foronda, Cons. Gen. from the Court of Spain, to the U. S.

Benjamin Count of Rumford, of Great Britain.

Jean Baptifte Jofeph Delambre, one of the Secretaries of the National Institute of France.

Daniel Melanderhjelm, member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Eric Profperin, profeffor of Aftronomy in the University of Upfal.

Conditions of the Magellanic Premium.

M. JOHN Hyacinth De Magellan, in London, having fometime ago offered as a donation, to the American Philofophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge, the fum of two hundred guineas, to be by them vested in a secure and permanent fund, to the end that the int reft arising therefrom should be annually disposed of in premiums, to be adjudged by the society, to the author of the best discovery, or most useful invention, relating to navigation, aftronomy, or natural philosophy (mere natural history only excepted) and the fociety having accepted of the above donation, hereby publish the conditions, prescribed by the donor, and agreed to by the fociety, upon which the faid annual premiums will be

awarded.

1. The candidate fhall fend his difcovery, invention, or improvement, addreffed to the Prefident, or one of the Vice-Prefidents of the fociety, free of postage or other charges; and fhall diftinguish his performance by fome motto device or other fignature, at his pleasure. Together with his discovery, invention, or improvement, he shall also send a fealed letter, containing the fame motto device or fignature, and fubfcribed with the real name, and place of refidence of the author.

2. Perfons of any nation, fect, or denomination whatever, fhall be admitted as candidates for this premium.

3. No discovery, invention, or improvement fhall be entitled to this premium, which hath been already published, or for which the author hath been publicly rewarded elfe where.

4. The candidate fhall communicate his discovery, invention, or improvement, either in the English, French, German, or Latin language.

5. All fuch communications fhall be publickly read, or exhibited to the fociety, at some stated meeting, not less than one month previous to the day of adjudication; and shall at all times be open to the infpection of fuch members as fhall defire it. But no member shall carry home with him the communication, defcription, or model, except the officer to whom it shall be intrufted; nor fhall fuch officer part with the fame out of his cuftody, without a special order of the fociety for that purpofe.

6. The fociety having previously referred the feveral communications. from candidates for the premium then depending, to the confideration of the twelve councellors and other officers of the fociety, and having re

ceived their report thereon, fhall, at one of their stated meetings in the month of December, annually, after the expiration of this current year, (of the time and place, together with the particular occafion of which meeting, due notice fhall be previously given, by public advertisement) proceed to the final adjudication of the faid premium: and after due confideration had, a vote fhall first be taken on this question, viz. Whether any of the communications then under infpection be worthy of the proposed premium? If this question be determined in the negative, the whole bufinefs fhall be deferred till another year: but if in the affirmative, the fociety fhall proceed to determine by ballot, given by the members at large, the discovery, invention, or improvement, most useful and worthy; and that discovery, invention, or improvement, which fhall be found to have a majority of concurring votes in its favour shall be fuccefsful; and then, and not till then, the fealed letter accompanying the crowned performance fhall be opened, and the name of the author announced as the perfon entitled to the said premium.

7. No member of the fociety who is a candidate for the premium then depending, or who hath not previously declared to the fociety, either by word or writing, that he has confidered and weighed, according to the best of his judgment, the comparative merits of the feveral claims then under confideration, fhall fit in judgment, or give his vote in awarding the faid premium.

8. A full account of the crowned fubject fhall be published by the fociety, as foon as may be after the adjudication, either in a separate publication, or in the next fucceeding volume of their tranfactions, or in both.

9. The unsuccessful performances fhall remain under confideration, and their authors be confidered as candidates for the premium, for five years. next fucceeding the time of their prefentment; except fuch performances as their authors may, in the mean time, think fit to withdraw. And the fociety fhall, annually, publish an abstract of the titles, object or fubject matter of the communications fo under confideration; fuch only excepted as the society shall think not worthy of public notice.

10. The letters containing the names of authors whofe performances fhall be rejected, or which shall be found unsuccessful after a tryal of five years, fhall be burnt before the fociety, without breaking the feals.

11. In cafe there fhould be a failure, in any year, of any communication worthy of the propofed premium, there will then be two premiums to be awarded in the next year. But no accumulation of premiums shall entitle an author to more than one premium for any one difcovery, invention, or improvement.