Its duties shall be to act on nominations for membership, have the direction of the finances, audit the accounts of the Treasurer, and provide a programme for each meeting of the Society. The officers shall be elected by ballot at each annual meeting, and shall serve one year, or until their successors are elected. ARTICLE V. PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENTS. The President, or, in his absence, one of the Vice Presidents, shall preside at meetings of the Society and Council. The presiding officer shall appoint all committees in the Council and in the Society, unless otherwise ordered. It shall be the duty of the retiring president to deliver an address at the second meeting in January. ARTICLE VI. SECRETARIES. The Secretaries shall take and preserve correct minutes of the proceedings of the Society and Council and a record of the members, shall conduct its correspondence, give due notice of all meetings, and inspect and count all ballots. ARTICLE VII. TREASURER. The Treasurer shall have charge of all money and other property of the Society, and shall make disbursements under the direction of the Council. He shall collect all fees and assessments, and notify members who may be in arrears. ARTICLE VIII. SECTIONS. Sections for special work in any department of Biology may be formed upon the recommendation of the Council. ARTICLE IX. MEETINGS. Stated meetings shall, unless otherwise ordered, be held on Friday of each alternate week, at eight o'clock P. M. The annual meeting for the election of officers shall be the first meeting in January. Special and field meetings may be called by the Council. ARTICLE X. FEES. The initiation fee shall be one dollar; the annual fee one dollar. Members in arrears for one year shall, after due notification by the Treasurer, be dropped from the rolls. No member in arrears shall be entitled to vote at the annual meeting for the election of officers. ARTICLE XI. AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. The constitution of the Society may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the members present at any regular meeting, after at least four weeks' notice. ARTICLE XII. ORDER OF BUSINESS. The order of business at each regular meeting, unless otherwise provided by the Council, shall be as follows: I. Reading of minutes. IV. Nominations for membership. V. Miscellaneous business. VI. Reading of papers, discussions and exhibition of specimens. Article XII may be suspended at any time by a two-thirds vote of the members present. PROCEEDINGS. PRELIMINARY MEETING, November 19, 1880. In response to a letter of invitation signed by C. V. Riley and G. Brown Goode, ten gentlemen met at the house of the former, No. 1700 Thirteenth Street N. W., to take into consideration a project for the organization of a natural history society in the city of Washington. Capt. C. E. Dutton, U. S. A. was chosen chairman. After an informal interchange of views and a discussion of various propositions advanced by those present, it was decided to send out a call for a general meeting to be held on the following Friday evening, to which all known to be interested in the objects of the proposed society should be invited. The following persons were in attendance at this preliminary meeting: Captain Clarence E. Dutton, Prof. Theodore Gill, Messrs. G. Brown Goode, Ernest Ingersoll, W. H. Patton, Richard Rathbun, C. V. Riley, Frederick W. True, Lester F. Ward, and Dr. George Vasey. MEETING FOR ORGANIZATION, November 26, 1880. In response to a call signed by C. E. Dutton, J. W. Chickering, Jr., Theodore Gill, G. Brown Goode, Ernest Ingersoll, W. H. Patton, Richard Rathbun, Robert Ridgway, C. V. Riley, F. W. True, Lester F. Ward, and George Vasey, about thirty gentlemen assembled in the Regents' Room, at the Smithsonian Institution. Prof. Riley was elected chairman, and Mr. Goode, Secretary. After much discussion it was decided to organize a society to be called THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. A committee consisting of Messrs. Gill, Goode, Rathbun, Riley, and Ward was appointed to draw up a form of constitution for the proposed society, and to submit the same at a meeting to be held on the evening of Friday, December 3. 24 FIRST MEETING, December 3, 1880. Thirty-five gentlemen assembled in the Regents' Room of the Smithsonian Institution, to hear the report of the Committee appointed to prepare a constitution for the projected society. Prof. Riley acted as chairman and Mr. Goode as secretary. The committee presented its report, and the form of constitution proposed by them was read article by article, and article by article modified and adopted. The constitution as a whole, in the form appended to these proceedings, was then adopted. The Society then adjourned to Friday evening, December 10, at which time a meeting was appointed for the completion of the organization of the Society by the election of a board of officers. SECOND MEETING, December 10, 1880. Twenty-two persons met in the usual place. Professor Gill was called to the chair, and, on the motion of Prof. Ward, the Society proceeded to ballot for officers for the ensuing year. The following board of officers was elected: President-THEODORE GILL. Vice-Presidents-C. V. RILEY, J. W. CHICKERING, LESTER F. WARD, HENRY ULKE. Secretaries-G. BROWN GOODE, RICHARD RATHBUN. Treasurer-ROBERT RIDGWAY. Members of Council-J. H. COMSTOCK, O. T. MASON, J. H. KIDDER, A. F. A. KING, GEORGE VASEY. The Society then adjourned to meet on the 24th of December. THIRD MEETING, December 24, 1880. The President occupied the chair, and thirty-one members were present. Messrs. Riley, Goode and King were announced as having been appointed a committee on communications. Dr. Tarleton H. Bean presented a communication entitled NOTES ON A VOYAGE ALONG THE COASTS OF ALASKA AND SIBERIA IN THE SUMMER OF 1880.* * Published in part in the New York Times for September 17, November 21, and December 6, 1880. FOURTH MEETING, January 14, 1881. (First Annual Meeting.) The President occupied the chair and thirty members were present. In accordance with the recommendation of the Council one of the Secretaries of the Society was instructed to cast the vote of its members for the entire board of officers elected at the meeting of December 10, such having been the understanding at the time of that election. The officers elected at that time were then announced as having been re-elected to serve during the coming year. The President announced that the Secretary had been authorized to have printed 250 copies of the constitution, with list of officers and members, and requested all members to send in their full names, that the customs of similar societies might be conformed to. Prof. L. F. Ward read a paper entitled THE FLORA COLUMBIANA OF 1830 AND 1880, which contained comparisons between the list of the plants of the District of Columbia printed in 1830 by Dr. Brereton and the lists perfected by the resident botanists of to-day. * Prof. D. S. Jordan, of the Indiana State University, read a paper entitled THE SALMON OF THE PACIFIC COAST.† FIFTH MEETING, January 28, 1881. The President occupied the chair, and thirty-six members were present. The President delivered his first annual address upon THE PRINCIPLES OF BIOLOGY WITH REFERENCE TO TAXONOMY.‡ In the discussion of the presidential address, Messrs. Comstock, Mason, Ward, Riley and White participated. * Included in the following paper: 1882. WARD, LESTER F. Guide to the Flora of Washington and Vicinity By Lester F. Ward, A. M. | - Washington: Government Printing Office, | 1881. 8vo., pp. 264 + 2, with map: - Bulletin of the U. S. National Museum, No. 22. (U. S. National Museum, No. 26.) † 1881. JORDAN, David S., AND CHARLES H. GILBERT. Observations on the Salmon of the Pacific. <American Naturalist. XV, 1881, (March,) pp. 177186. The essentials of this address are embodied in the articles BIOLOGY (Vol. I, 1875,) and MORPHOLOGY (Vol. III, 1877,) in Johnson's Cyclopedia. New York, 1875-8 |