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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



THE TWO HUNDEED AND FIF- 

 TIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

 ROYAL SOCIETY 



The charter of the Boyal Society of 

 London was signed on July 15, 1662, 

 and exactly two hundred and fifty 

 years thereafter the event has been 

 adequately celebrated. The organiza- 

 tion of society in Great Britain makes 

 social functions more successful than 

 they are with us, and the events of the 

 celebration were social rather than 

 scientific. They consisted of a service 

 in Westminster Abbey; a formal recep- 

 tion of the delegates at the rooms of 



the society in Burlington House; a 

 banquet at the Guild Hall, when toasts 

 were proposed by the prime minister, 

 Lord Morley and the Archbishop of 

 Canterbury; a conversazione at Bur- 

 lington House; receptions by the king 

 and queen and other entertainments, 

 and the conferring of degrees at Ox- 

 ford and Cambridge. There were pres- 

 ent 132 foreign delegates from univer- 

 sities and learned societies, among 

 whom the United States were repre- 

 sented by 23. 



The Eoyal Society was established at 

 nearly the same time as the Paris 



Burlington House, from a drawing by Lady Hugging. 



