Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/839

Rh desirous of cultivating chemical science and promoting the state of philosophical inquiry."

The principal officers elected at the first meeting were as follows: Patron, Hon. Thomas Jefferson, Esq.; president, Prof. James Cutbush; vice presidents, George F. Lehman, Franklin Bache.

Thomas Jefferson's commanding position in the world of science and arts, as well as his literary attainments, well qualified him for the office of patron; he was at that time living at his country seat in Virginia, having already served his country for eight years as chief magistrate.

The president of the society, Dr. James Cutbush, was Professor of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and Mineralogy at St. John's College; in 1814 he held the position of assistant apothecary general in the army, and he afterward became Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy at the United States Military Academy, West Point, where he died in 1823. Dr. Cutbush published several books, the best known being A System of Pyrotechny (Philadelphia, 1825), an elaborate work of six hundred pages.

Franklin Bache, the second vice-president, was at that date a youth of only twenty years, who had graduated the year before at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a grandson of Benjamin Franklin and a member of the distinguished Bache family which numbered so many eminent men of science. He afterward became Professor of Chemistry at the Jefferson Medical College, a position which he held until his death in 1864.

The constitution adopted by the founders of the society, besides the usual business rules, contained some unusual features. The officers included an orator, whose duty it was to deliver an oration on some chemical subject once every year. Since the Society's Memoirs contain no "oration," it is to be feared that the incumbent's efforts were not satisfactory. The constitution undertook to control the members' actions by a series of fines: twelve and a half cents for absence each roll, and one dollar for refusing to accept an office or declining to read an original chemical essay when appointed to do so. To insure against members withdrawing early from a dull meeting, the secretary was directed to call the roll at the opening and close of each meeting, and to fine absentees twelve and a half cents. Candidates for membership were required to read an original essay on some chemical subject to be discussed by the members, and a two-thirds vote was required to insure election. It seems to have been easier to be put out of the society than to get into it, for "any member behaving in a disorderly manner shall be expelled by consent of two thirds of the members present."

There were two classes of members: "junior," thirteen in