minister and soldier, tracing back an honoured ancestry from before the settlement of Penn. He was a Quaker to the very last, without a particle of schismatic bitterness, but pertinacious in his adherence to his patrimonial faith and forms.

He occupied a very large space in this community of ours, and held many positions of trust. He was a contented man, who had persuaded Price Wetherill to be the executor of his will, or the guardian of his children. He had the confidence of all classes. When a bank had just been proclaimed insolvent, and in spite of the police, an excited crowd of small creditors was threatening violence at the counter, a promise from him that "he would see into the matter" made every thing quiet. He was fairly borne down by public offices. He was an indefatigable Guardian of the Poor, a Manager of the Girard estates, chairman of the Watering Committee of Philadelphia for a great many years, and latterly the President of our Select Council.

He was a scientific manufacturing chemist; a theorising, but also a practical agriculturist; a thorough and successful business man; yet a zealous politician, public spirited beyond any one of his place and time, liberal to profusion for the relief of want, the encouragement of toil, the advancement of science; his whole life devoted to all he believed to be good; and his death that of a humble, almost timorous, but hopeful Christian.

He had some eccentricities; but they were none of them repulsive; he was careless of his personal appearance, and took pride in leading with his own hands the operations of his laboratory and his farm. Still, he liked the society of the eminent and refined, and had many warm friends among the political leaders of the country. He was a vice-president in the Academy of Natural Sciences, and a member of the Wistar Club.

His hospitality was without stint, and embraced almost all classes in its range. His charities were still more diffusive; those, who have ministered to the poor and suffering during the inclemencies of this winter, have found out how large and pervading were his benefactions, and how carefully screened from the public eye. I myself know more than one thriving and happy household, that can refer back its comforts and its hope to his well devised and equally well masked bounty.

This is about all that need be said of our friend. He performed his part in life well; and it was a laborious and responsible one; and he carried with him to the grave the regrets of many poor, and the esteem of all the worthy.

Elected a member American Philosophical Society, 20th April, 1827. Elected a curator American Philosophical Society, January, 1828. Died at Philadelphia, 24th July, 1853, aged 59 years.

The minutes of the Board of Officers and Council at their last meeting were read by the clerk.

The committee appointed at last meeting, on the subject of equalizing the coinage of this country and of Great Britain, reported a memorial to the Congress of the United States on that subject, which, after consideration and debate, was re-committed to the committee, to report at a future meeting of the Society.

Dr. Boardman, on behalf of James Lenox, Esq., of New York, presented for the Library of the Society a translation of the "Voyages of De Vries from Holland to America, A. D. 1632 to 1644," and made some remarks upon the rarity of the original work and the value of the donation:

Whereupon-on motion of Prof. Frazer, the Secretary was directed to communicate the thanks of the Society to Mr. Lenox for his valuable gift.

On motion of Judge Kane, (Dr. Dunglison having taken the chair), the Address delivered to the Society by its President, on the 16th of December last, was referred to the Board of Officers and Council.

The subject of re-engraving the seal of the Society, which has become much worn by long use, was also referred to the Officers and Council.

Stated Meeting, March 3.

Present, ten members.

The President and Vice-Presidents being absent, Mr. Justice was called to the Chair.

Mr. George Harding, a recently elected member, was introduced and took his seat.

From the Trustees of the New York State Library, dated

Albany, Feb. 15, 1854; from the Connecticut Historical Society, dated Hartford, Feb. 15, 1854; and from the Lyceum of Natural History, dated New York, Feb. 21, 1854; respectively acknowledging the receipt of No. 50 of the Proceedings of this Society, and returning thanks for the same: and

From the Royal Zoological Society at Amsterdam, dated Nov. 1853, accompanying a donation for the library of the Society.

The following donations were announced:

FOR THE LIBRARY.

Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde: uitgegeven door het Genootschap Natura Artis Magistra, te Amsterdam. Aflevering 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Amsterdam, 1848-1852. 4to.-From the Zoological Society at Amsterdam.

Astronomical Observations made at the Radcliffe Observatory, in the

year 1851. By Manuel J. Johnson, M.A. Radcliffe Observer. Vol. XII. Oxford, 1853. 8vo.-From the Radcliffe Trustees. American Journal of Science and Arts: Vol. XVII. No. 50. March, 1854. New Haven, 8vo.-From Profs. Silliman and Dana, Editors.

Nineteenth Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Young Men's Library Association of Cincinnati. Jan. 3, 1854. Cincinnati. 8vo.-From the Association.

Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, for 1853. Philadelphia. 8vo.From the Directors.

Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the House of Refuge. Philadelphia, 1854. Philadelphia, 1854. 8vo.-From J. J. Barclay,

Esq.

Battle of Lake Erie: A Discourse delivered before the Rhode Island Historical Society, Feb. 16, 1852, by Usher Parsons: and Oration on the occasion of celebrating the Fortieth Anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie: delivered Sept. 10, 1853, in Newport, R. I., by George H. Calvert. Providence, 1854. 8vo.-From

Dr. G. Emerson.

Returns of the several Banks and Savings Institutions of Pennsylvania, communicated by the Auditor General to the Legislature, 1854. Harrisburg. 8vo.-From M. W. Baldwin, Esq. The Seventh Census:-Report of Jos. C. G. Kennedy, late Superin

VOL. VI.-C

tendent of the Census, for Dec. 1, 1852;-to which is appended the Report for Dec. 1, 1851. Washington, 1853. 8vo.-From the Author.

The Medical News and Library: Vol. XII. No. 135. March, 1854. Philadelphia. 8vo.-From Blanchard & Lea.

Astronomical Journal: Vol. III. No. 19. Feb. 17, 1854. Cambridge, Mass. Svo.-From Dr. B. A. Gould, jr., Editor.

The committee appointed at a former meeting, relative to the equalization of coinage between this country and Great Britain, reported the following Memorial to Congress, on this subject, which, on motion, was adopted by the Society, and ordered to be signed by the proper officers and forwarded for presentation to Congress.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled.

The Memorial of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge, respectfully shows:

That, at the present moment, there is a favourable opportunity for effecting a result of great public interest and convenience; by establishing a Coinage which shall be identical in weight, fineness and value, for the two great Commercial Nations which use the same English tongue.

It is understood that the Government of Great Britain is about to adopt, wholly or in part, a decimal correlation of the coins issued by its authority, like that which has been for a long time used in the United States; and it can be readily perceived that but slight modifications in the relative unitary weights and values are required, respectively, to bring the coinage in the two countries to the identity already mentioned.

When this shall have been accomplished, inasmuch as the Weights and Linear Measures are already and have ever been the same for both nations, the Measures of Capacity will alone be discrepant, and as the standards of this sort for the United States may be considered as virtually the same with those accepted in Great Britain anterior to 1825 (the difference being only in the temperatures to which observations are reduced) there is reason to hope that a suitable occasion may hereafter occur to remove the discrepancy in this respect also.

The undoubted convenience of a decimal computation makes its

extension to the entire Weight and Measure System, both here and in Great Britain, highly desirable; but such extension is not contemplated in the present prayer of your Memorialists, which limits itself to what is easily practicable and is in the direct line of farther improvement.

In view of what has been said, then, and of the great convenience that citizens of the two countries will find when the coins of each pass in the other with the same facility as ours now do, between the different and distant States of this Union;-of the great economy of time and labour that Commerce will experience in thus getting rid of tedious calculations of conversions and exchanges,--and of the great, though silent and unpretending help that will be given to the civilization of the human race in this concession to uniformity by two great nations whose common language is already spoken over half the globe:-Your Memorialists respectfully pray that your Honourable Bodies will give to this subject a wise and favourable consideration;— and by joint resolution, or otherwise, will authorize the President of the United States to enter into such correspondence with the Government of Great Britain as may secure, in a reasonable time, a proper uniformity of Coinage, in the mode that may be found most discreet and convenient.

And your Memorialists will ever pray, &c.

Stated Meeting, March 17.

Dr. FRANKLIN BACHE, President, in the Chair.

Present, fourteen members.

Letters were read:

From James Paget, dated 24 Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, London, Feb. 15, 1854, acknowledging the receipt of notice of his election as a member of the Society: and

From the Royal Academy of Sciences at Amsterdam, dated Nov. 2, 1853, returning thanks for Vol. X. Part 2, of the Transactions, and for No. 48 of the Proceedings of this Society.