i8 9 5. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 81 



A Progressive Learned Society. 



The Royal Geographical Society has been planning certain 

 measures of reform, some of them of considerable interest. Thus 

 the Society has not only reconstructed its premises so as to afford 

 greater facilities of reference in its Library : it has added a new 

 Reading-room, and endeavoured to better the accommodation of its 

 Fellows generally. They may use the Council-room for the purposes 

 of reading or of writing letters, and in another room they have the 

 privilege of conversation and tobacco. These efforts to give the 

 Society some of the advantages of a club are most praiseworthy, not 

 only from a social but from a scientific point of view ; and they 

 might well be followed by other learned societies. As a rule the 

 privileges of Fellows of these Societies are practically confined to 

 the consultation and borrowing of books, and to the attendance at 

 evening meetings. Little or no social intercourse is possible owing 

 to the want of a conversation-room ; nor is any adequate provision 

 made for the writing of letters, &c. 



The Royal Geographical Society, it is true, performs some 

 functions that other societies might find it difficult to adopt ; its 

 map-room, thanks to Government aid, is open to the public, so that 

 anyone may go in and learn what is known about the geography of 

 any portion of the world. Nevertheless the Society labours in other 

 ways which serve to promote the study of geography, and which 

 might be followed by some of the older but less energetic societies. 

 It organises lectures both technical and popular, and aids travellers 

 and explorers in a variety of ways. Perhaps the most important of 

 its departures is its federation, at present informal, with other societies 

 in Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh, and other large 

 towns. This alone is a subject most deserving of the attention of 

 scientific societies, for by such means, in due time, the great and 

 accumulating burden of literature might, to a certain extent, be con- 

 centrated and generally lightened — to the great benefit of those now 

 living, and to the greater benefit of those who come afterwards. 



" The Zoological Record " in Parts. 



We desire to direct the attention of such of our readers as may 

 be engaged on original zoological research to the letter from Mr. S. 

 Pace that we print in this number. The general complaint as to the 

 present system of selling the Zoological Record in one bulky and 

 expensive volume, to those who really need only a few pages maybe of 

 it, was admirably voiced in our own pages not long ago by the Rev. 

 T. R. R. Stebbing in his vivacious article, " On Random Publishing 

 and Rules of Priority " (vol. v., p. 341). 



No one has ever been able to understand why the authorities at 

 the Zoological Society persistently refuse the persistent demand for 

 the sale of the Record in separate parts. A few despairing students 



