York on the first Thursday in November, at which a report of the proceedings of the Society and an abstract of the accounts shall be furnished by the Council; the Council may change the time of the annual meeting, and shall in that case give six months' notice to members and associates."

The proper form of amendment here would be one which should take from the Council this authority to change the time of the annual meeting, or should simply take the form of a recommendation to the Council that it be changed. In the first case it would have to go through this form, and should have been proposed in this form. In the second case, as a mere recommendation, it can come in now or at any time.

Mr. Le Van.-I would ask then that it be made a recommendation to the Council to have it changed.

The President.-Caunot Mr. Le Van put that resolution in form? Mr. Le Van.-Not in any better form than I put it last year. The Secretary.-There is no such resolution on the minutes and none came formally before the Society to my knowledge.

Mr. Weightman.-Is there any necessity for such a resolution? I think the Council will take note of it at the mere request of one member.

The President.-In the absence of any resolution of course debate is not in order. Is there any other business of this character offered, or any general business at all? Is any report to be presented by the Committee on Tests of Iron and Steel? That committee is still in existence and I understand that a meeting of it is set for today.

Mr. Woodbury.-Dr. Egleston notified me yesterday of a meeting of the committee this afternoon, and as he does not seem to be here this morning I take the responsibility of assuming that he will present something on behalf of the committee later during this meeting.

The President.-The next matter in the order of business will be the discussion of earlier papers.

Mr. Wiley.-I simply want to bring before the meeting the fact we ought to nominate our officers in a different way from what we do now. I do not know just how this matter should be brought up, but I am sure of the fact that the present method ought to be changed.

The President.-It should be carefully considered, and a resolution written out and presented.

Mr. Weightman.-I was requested by the treasurer to suggest some amendments, and I would move that a special committee be appointed to revise our By-Laws, and to report at our next annual meeting, or, if possible, to report at our next regular meeting, so that such suggestions could be adopted at the annual meeting. I would make the motion that a special committee on by-laws be appointed.

The President.-Would it suit the gentleman as well to put his motion in this form, that a committee be appointed by the new Council? It would be somewhat ungracious for the outgoing Council to appoint committees for the new Council.

Mr. Weightman.-I would put it in that form, or for the Chairman to appoint such a committee.

Mr. Durfee.-I second the motion, and for this reason I am profoundly of the opinion that we are using up at these annual and other meetings altogether too much time in discussing amendments which are of comparatively little value when viewed in their relation to the real work of the Society, and if there is any means by which we can have some laws that resemble those of the Medes and Persians, that may not be altered, I hope that a resolution leading to such a result will be passed.

Mr. Bayles.-I would like to ask whether the appointment of this committee cuts off the right of the members to amend the ules.

The President.-The amendments just passed upon of course are gone by. Future amendments will be referred to such committee, I should say, if it were formed.

Mr. Woodbury.-The epitaph which should be put on the gravestone of many a disorganized society would be "strangled by its own by-laws." While there are many items in our constitution. and by-laws which might be more convenient to individual members here and there, yet, as a whole, I deprecate the idea of devoting so much time to alterations which are little more than verbal in their character. The by-laws were very carefully prepared in the first place by persons conversant with the working of similar societies, and who had had long experience in affairs; and while it may be necessary to make changes now and then for the most harmonious and efficient operation of this Society, it seems to me that it would be a retrogression and not a step forward to endeavor to reorganize or to give a committee power which would look to that result in the way of altering our constitution and by-laws. We

come here for professional purposes, and not to quibble over matters of law.

Mr. Weightman.-It was just for that purpose that I made this motion, so that such discussions should take place in the special committee. So far as our by-laws being to a certain extent a matter of death to us, there is one point brought up here, and that is that in our money matters there is constant complaint now that we are running behind. The treasurer has complained of one point in reference to our by-laws, and that is that nobody is responsible for the money spent. Article XXVII. says that no bill shall be paid for the Society until it has been certified to by the person authorized to contract it, and audited by the Committee on Finance. Now he wishes to know what power there is in the Committee on Finance to audit a bill after it has been contracted by the person spending the money. He being the person authorized to contract the bill, the Finance Committee must necessarily pay it. The auditing of it, the Treasurer claims, is a farce, and he can see no method of governing expenditure so as to keep it in due bounds and within our receipts. Those are points which were taken from the treasurer at his request. It was at his request that I mentioned these matters. I thought it would cover it better by referring the whole matter to the Committee on By-Laws, when the discussion could take place outside our meetings.

Mr. Rose. The object of the first mover (Mr. Wiley) was to give the members of the Society some voice in the election of its officers. As we are at present constituted, we are presented with just enough names to fill just so many offices, and therefore the members of the Society have no voice whatever, except so far as they are represented by the Council, in the choice of officers.

The resolution proposed by Mr. Weightman was agreed to.

The President.-If there is nothing further to be offered in regard to the papers presented at the last meeting, we will proceed to the reading of the papers offered for this meeting. We have a paper by Mr. Seaman on "The Rail Cambering Arrangement of the Lackawanna Coal and Iron Company."

Mr. Seaman read his paper, and discussion followed.

After the discussion of Mr. Seaman's paper, Mr. Hayward read a paper entitled "An Adjustable Cut-off for Steam Engines," and discussion followed.

The tellers having opened and counted the ballots, made a

Mr. Weightman.-I was requested by the treasurer to suggest some amendments, and I would move that a special committee be appointed to revise our By-Laws, and to report at our next annual meeting, or, if possible, to report at our next regular meeting, so that such suggestions could be adopted at the annual meeting. I would make the motion that a special committee on by-laws be appointed.

The President.-Would it suit the gentleman as well to put his motion in this form, that a committee be appointed by the new Council? It would be somewhat ungracious for the outgoing Council to appoint committees for the new Council.

Mr. Weightman.-I would put it in that form, or for the Chairman to appoint such a committee.

Mr. Durfee.-I second the motion, and for this reason: I am profoundly of the opinion that we are using up at these annual and other meetings altogether too much time in discussing amendments which are of comparatively little value when viewed in their relation to the real work of the Society, and if there is any means by which we can have some laws that resemble those of the Medes and Persians, that may not be altered, I hope that a resolution leading to such a result will be passed.

.

Mr. Bayles.-I would like to ask whether the appointment of this committee cuts off the right of the members to amend the ules.

The President.-The amendments just passed upon of course are gone by. Future amendments will be referred to such committee, I should say, if it were formed.

Mr. Woodbury.-The epitaph which should be put on the gravestone of many a disorganized society would be "strangled by its own by-laws." While there are many items in our constitution. and by-laws which might be more convenient to individual members here and there, yet, as a whole, I deprecate the idea of devoting so much time to alterations which are little more than verbal in their character. The by-laws were very carefully prepared in the first place by persons conversant with the working of similar societies, and who had had long experience in affairs; and while it may be necessary to make changes now and then for the most harmonious and efficient operation of this Society, it seems to me that it would be a retrogression and not a step forward to endeavor to reorganize or to give a committee power which would look to that result in the way of altering our constitution and by-laws. We

come here for professional purposes, and not to quibble over matters of law.

Mr. Weightman.-It was just for that purpose that I made this motion, so that such discussions should take place in the special committee. So far as our by-laws being to a certain extent a matter of death to us, there is one point brought up here, and that is that in our money matters there is constant complaint now that we are running behind. The treasurer has complained of one point in reference to our by-laws, and that is that nobody is responsible for the money spent. Article XXVII. says that no bill shall be paid for the Society until it has been certified to by the person authorized to contract it, and audited by the Committee on Finance. Now he wishes to know what power there is in the Committee on Finance to audit a bill after it has been contracted by the person spending the money. He being the person authorized to contract the bill, the Finance Committee must necessarily pay it. The auditing of it, the Treasurer claims, is a farce, and he can see no method of governing expenditure so as to keep it in due bounds and within our receipts. Those are points which were taken from the treasurer at his request. It was at his request that I mentioned these matters. I thought it would cover it better by referring the whole matter to the Committee on By-Laws, when the discussion could take place outside our meetings.

Mr. Rose. The object of the first mover (Mr. Wiley) was to give the members of the Society some voice in the election of its officers. As we are at present constituted, we are presented with just enough names to fill just so many offices, and therefore the members of the Society have no voice whatever, except so far as they are represented by the Council, in the choice of officers.

The resolution proposed by Mr. Weightman was agreed to.

The President.-If there is nothing further to be offered in regard to the papers presented at the last meeting, we will proceed to the reading of the papers offered for this meeting. We have a paper by Mr. Seaman on "The Rail Cambering Arrangement of the Lackawanna Coal and Iron Company."

Mr. Seaman read his paper, and discussion followed.

After the discussion of Mr. Seaman's paper, Mr. Hayward read a paper entitled "An Adjustable Cut-off for Steam Engines," and discussion followed.

The tellers having opened and counted the ballots, made a