CONSTITUTION
OF THE
ACADEMY of MEDICINE
PHILADELPHIA. 
TO collect materials for a general history of the dis-
eases of our country ; to mark those diseases and their
modifications accompanying the several seasons of the
year, the different situations of places, the various occu-
pations of men, and their modes of life ; to embody evi-
dence respecting particular states and constitutions of
the atmosphere, favourable to the propagation of particu-
lar diseases; to enquire into the causes, to examine the
nature, ascertain the extent, duration and general effect:
of such states and constitutions ; to notice the rise and
progress, to investigate the causes, and to establish the
proper treatment of epidemics; to devise and recommend
effectual measures for obviating the recurrence of these
calamities ; to contribute in any other manner to the
general promotion of medical science, and to the conse-
quent diminution of human misery—are objects which,
at the present period, exhibit a special claim to the at-
tention of the physicians of America.
Impressed by the foregoing considerations, and influ-
enced by a conviction of the numerous advantages re-
sulting from active and well regulated literary insitituti-
ons, a number of the Physicians of Philadelphia have
thought proper to associate themselves under the name
and title of the
" Academy of Medicine of Philadelphia."
For the more certain attainment of the foregoing ob-
jects, and for the promotion of order and uniformity in
the practice of medicine, the following constitution has
been adopted :— 


I. The Academy shall consist of two classes of men-
bers, resident and corresponding.
II. Resident members shall consist of physicians of
respectability, both in their moral and medical charac-
ters, residing within the city of Philadelphia, the North-
ern Liberties or the district of Southwark.
III. Corresponding members shall consist of such
medical characters, not residing; within the aforesaid li-
mits, as the resident members may think proper to elect.
IV. The officers of the Academy shall consist of a
President, two Vice-Presidents, viz. a senior and a ju-
nior, a Secretary, a Librarian, and a Treasurer, all of
whom shall be annually chosen by ballot, from amongst
the resident members at the first stated meeting in the
month of January.
V. The President, or in his absence or indisposition,
the senior Vice-President, or in the absence or indispo-
sition of both, the junior Vice-President shall be possessed
of power to call extraordinary meetings ; it shall like-
wise be their duty, in the order above stated, to call
them at the request of five members.
VI. The Secretary shall keep correct minutes of
the transactions of the Academy, and shall record them
in a book provided for the purpose.
VII. The Treasurer shall take charge of all monies
belonging to the Academy, and shall pay them to the
order of the President or Vice-Presidents only, which
order shall be the voucher of his expenditures.
VIII. It shall be the business of the Librarian to take
charge of all books, communications and literary pro-
perty, of which the Academy may become possessed.
IX. Each member of the Academy shall be furnish-
ed with a certificate of his election, signed by the Presi-
dent, and countersigned by the Secretary; and to which
shall be affixed, the seal of the Academy—the stile of
certificates and of all addresses from the Academy shall
be " the Academy of Medicine of Philadelphia."
X. Seven resident members, the President or either
of the Vice-Presidents being one, shall form a quorum
for ordinary business; but when neither the President 

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nor either of the Vice-Presidents attend, nine members
shall be requisite to form a board.

XI. Four committees shall be annually chosen from
amongst the resident members, at the same meeting
when the officers of the Academy are elected, viz. the
Committee of Correspondence, the Committee of Mete-
orology, the Committee of Revision, and the Committee
for annual Bills of Mortality within the city of Philadel-
phia, the district of Southwark, and the Northern Liber-
ties.
XII. The Academy have power to alter this Con-
stitution, but any motion for that purpose shall lie over
at least two months, and when a vote is taken, the con-
currence of three-fourths of the members present shall be
necessay.
XIII. In the expenditure of money, the making of
laws, the election or punishiment of members, or the
altering of this constitution, the presence of at least three-
fourths of the resident members shall be essential, until
the number shall have augmented to twenty-four, after
which two-thirds shall be deemed competent to any of
the above transactions.
XIV. Each resident. member shall on his admission
into the Academy subscribe his name to this Constituti-
on, as a testimony of his consent to be governed thereby.
I have examined the preceding instrument of incor-
poration, and am of opinion, that the objects, articles,
and conditions therein set forth and contained are lawful.
JARED INGERSOL, Attorney Gen.
We certify to his excellency the Governor, that we
have examined the preceding instrument, and concur
in opinion with the Attorney General, that the objects,
articles and conditions therein set forth and contained,
are lawful.
THOMAS M'KEAN.
EDW. SHIPPEN.
J. YATES
THOMAS SMITH.
March 28, 1799.

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In the name, and by the authority of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania.
THOMAS MIFFLIN,
Governor of the said Commonwealth, To Mathew
Irwin, Esq. Master of the Rolls in and for the said
Commonwealth, sends greeting:
WHEREAS it has been duly certified to me by
Jared Ingersoll, Esq. Attorney General of the
said Commonwealth, and by Thomas M'Kean, Esq.
Chief Justice, Edward Shippen, Jasper Yates and
Thomas Smith, Esquires, Associate Justices of the Su-
preme Courts of Pennsylvania, that they have re-
spectively perused and examined the annexed Act or In-
strument for Incorporation, of the Academy of Medicine
of Philadelphia, and that they concur in opinion, that
the objects, articles, and conditions therein set forth and
contained, are lawful: Now know you, that in pur-
suance of an act of the General Assembly, passed the
sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand
seven hundred and ninety one, entitled " An act to
confer on certain associations of the citizens of this
Commonwealth, the powers and immunities of Corpora-
tion or bodies Politic in Law;" I have transmitted the
said act or instrument of Incorporation unto you, the
said Mathew Irwin, Master of Rolls aforesaid, hereby re-
quiring you to enrol the same at the expence of the ap-
plicants, to the intent that according to the objects, ar-
ticles, and conditions therein set forth and contained,
the parties may become and be a Corporation and body
Politic in Law, and in fact to have continuance by the
name, stile, and title, in the said instrument provided
and declared.
Given under my hand, and the great seal of the
state of Pennsylvania, the third day of April,
one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine,
and of the Commonwealth the twenty-third.
By the Governor,
JAMES TRIMBLE, Deputy Sec'ry. 

LAWS
OF THE
ACADEMY of MEDICINE
OF
PHILADELPHIA.
CHAP. I.
Of Meetings.
I. THE stated meetings of the Academy shall be
precisely at 5 o'clock, P. M. on the second
and fourth Monday of every month.
The order of buisness shall be as follows :-
I. Provided the necessary number of members be
present, the President shall take the chair ten minutes
after the appointed time of meeting, and shall declare
the Academy constituted.
II. The Secretary shall call the roll, and note the
names of absent members.
III. The minutes of the preceding meeting shall be
read, and corrected if necessary.
IV. Candidates shall be ballotted for, and when oc-
casion requires, officers shall be elected—New members
shall sign the laws.
V. Candidates for admission proposed. 

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VI. Contributions and fines collected by the Trea-
surer.
VII. Reports of committees received.
VIII. Communications delivered, read and discussed.
IX. Miscellaneous business transacted.
X. Roll called.
XL Academy adjourned.
CHAP. II.
I. The election of candidates shall be by ballot, and
shall be held only on the first stated meeting in January,
April, July and October. 
II. For the election of a resident member, it shall be
necessary, that he be proposed as a candidate in writing,
signed by not less than three members of the Academy,
at least four weeks previously to the time of his being
ballotted for ; and the concurrence of four-fifths of the
members present, shall be essential to his admission.
III. For the admission of a corresponding member, it
shall be necessary that he be proposed in writing as a
candidate, signed by two members of the Academy, at
least two weeks previously to his being ballotted for ;
and it shall be requisite that not less than three-fourths
of the members present concur in his election.
IV. Corresponding members, who may come to reside
within the limits designated in Art. II of the constitution,
may at pleasure attend the meetings of the Academy ;
but shall take no part in the transactions, nor in any de-
bate without special permission from the President.


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CHAP. III
Of Officers.
I. In the absence of the President, the chair shall de-
volve on the Senior Vice-president, and on the Junior
Vice-president in the absence of both the above named
officers ; but should the President and both the Vice-
presidents by absent, the Academy shall nominate a
president pro tempore.
II. The President shall not be entitled to a vote, ex-
cept in the election of members and of officers ; or when
a division of voices shall render a calling vote necessary.
III. He shall possess power to grant leave of absence.
IV. The Secretary shall notify, in one of the public
papers of this city, the election of resident and corres-
ponding members; and shall receive all communica-
tions made to the Academy by persons residing within
the limits of the city of Philadelphia, the Northern Liber-
ties and the district of Southwark.
V. The Treasurer shall, annually at the last stated
meeting in December or oftner if required, report to the
Academy the state of the funds, and render in an accur-
ate account of his receipts and disbursements for the cur-
rent year. He shall also on his election enter into a
bond, with approved security to the President of the
Academy in a sum not less than 100 dollars, and not ex-
ceeding fifteen hundred dollars as a security for the
monies with which he may become entrusted. 


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CHAP. IV.
Of Committees.
I. The President shall have power to appoint com-
mittees, which shall consist of an odd number ; except
in the case of the four standing committees, which shall
not necessarily consist of an odd number.
II. The committee of correspondence shall consist of
five members.
III. The committee of meteorology shall be composed
of four members, resident in various parts of the city.
It shall be the duty of two of these to keep an exact re-
gister of the state of the thermometer, Barometer, and
Hygrometer, as it may appear at any hour not later than
eight in the morning, at three in the afternoon, and at
ten at night. The duty of the other two shall be to note
the state of the winds and weather at the same hours also
the purity of the atmosphere as shewn by the state of the
Eudiometer, once a week, and the quantity of rain which
falls as indicated by the Pleuviometer at nine every
morning, or oftner. If judged proper this committee
shall report Monthly.
IV. The Committee of Revision shall consist of three
members, whose duty it shall be to revise and prepare
such communications as may be made to the Academy,
and which they may deem proper for the press ; after
which they shall report a list of them for its approbation.
V. The Committee for the annual bills of mortality
shall, annually, make as accurate a report as possible of
the number of deaths, which may occur in the city, nor-
thern Liberties and district of Southwark; as well as of
the ages of the deceased. 


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CHAP. V.
Of fines and Contributions.
I. Each resident member shall contribute, for the use
of the Academy, two dollars quarterly.
II. Candidates on admission shall pay ten dollars in-
to the hands of the treasurer for the use of the Academy.
III. Any member who shall fail to be present at roll-
call unless confined by sickness, shall incur a fine of one
fourth of a dollar, and one half dollar if absent the whole
evening, unless permission is granted by the President.
IV. Every member who fails to communicate a pa-
per in his turn, shall be subject to the fine of two dol-
lars.
CHAP. VI.
Of Orations and Communications.
I. An address shall be delivered annually to the
Academy at a special meeting to be held for that pur-
pose on the third Monday in December, at noon,
on a medical subject, or some subject in science
intimately connected with medicine, by a resident
member, who shall have twelve months previous no-
tice to prepare for the occasion.
II. Each member shall deliver in writing a commu-
nication upon some medical subject, or a scientific one
connected with medicine ; and this duty shall be per-


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formed in the order in which the names are subscribed
to the constitution.
Miscellaneous.
I. In matters of order the officiating President shall
decide finally ; and when he speaks to a motion he shall
vacate the chair, and appoint a member to act in his
place.
II. Every motion shall be made by a member stand-
ing, and shall be delivered, if required, to the President
in writing. No motion shall be received which is not
seconded.
III. Absence from the Academy for six months or
neglect of duty shall subject the delinquent member to
expulsion or to such other censure as three fourths of
the Academy shall decree.
IV. Any member who shall divulge the rejection of
a candidate, or any of the transactions of the Academy,
in which secrecy may be required, shall be subject to
a severe censure from the President in the name of the
Academy.
V. Any member who enters into conversation du-
ring the sitting of the Academy shall be deemed disor-
derly and shall subject himself to the censure of the
President.
VI. Any member failing in propriety of behaviour
to a fellow member, in his medical capacity ; or any
member who shall in any point be guilty of a breach of
morality or ungentlemanly conduct, shall subject himself
to such fine or punishment as three fourths of the mem-
bers present shall deem adequate, after a candid in-
vestigation of the affair. 


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VII. No person who may be known to be possessed
of a remedy for the cure of any human malady, and who
may refuse to communicate the same to this Academy,
when applied to for this purpose, and without the in-
junction of secrecy, shall be eligible to membership in
this institution.
PHILIP SYNG PHYSIC, President. 
JOHN C. OTTO, Secretary.