478 Extracts from the Minute-Book of the Linnean Sdciety. 



" The Council has repeatedly had the subject and terms of this bequest under 

 its serious consideration, and has, after much patient and anxious deliberation, 

 unanimously come to the following resolution : — 



' Resolved, — That in the opinion of this Council, on a full consideration 

 of the terms of the bequest of the late Edward Rudge, Esq., of the interest 

 of a sum of £200, for the purpose of establishing a Medal ' to be awarded 

 by the President and Council of the (Linnean) Society, at their discretion, 

 to the Fellow of the said Society who shall write the best communication 

 in each volume which after his (the testator's) decease shall be published 

 by the said Society, in either of the four departments of Natural History,' 

 it is inexpedient to accede to the liberal intentions of the testator under the 

 conditions expressed in his will,' 



' That this Resolution be submitted to a Special Meeting of this Society.' 



" This Resolution, which has received the entire concurrence of the President 

 and of every Member of the Council, was chiefly founded on the following con- 

 siderations : — 



" The great object of the Linnean Society, as of all other bodies similarly 

 constituted, is the production and publication of such essays as tend to the 

 advancement of that branch of science which it cultivates. The principal 

 question therefore in reference to Mr. Rudge's bequest, is the manner in which 

 its acceptance would operate on the Society's publications, and the Council has 

 arrived at the conclusion that its tendency would be prejudicial rather than 

 favourable ; inasmuch as while the Medal would offer no inducement to some 

 of those Members who have hitherto been in the habit of communicating papers 

 which have had a place in the * Transactions,' they might, on the contrary, 

 be unwilling to submit their future communications to this new ordeal ; and it 

 does not appear probable that the Medal would prove a stimulus to the pro- 

 duction of more valuable Essays from any other class of the Society. On the 

 other hand, it is probable that dissatisfaction would arise in the minds of some 

 of those Members, who after contributing papers to more than one volume of 

 the ' Transactions,' should fail in obtaining the award of a Medal. 



" A second objection to the acceptance of the bequest arises from the absence 

 of any discretionary power of withholding the Medal, which is necessarily to be 

 awarded to the best paper in every volume, and consequently to papers of very 

 unequal value, thereby lowering the character of the Medal, and consequently 

 affecting the scientific reputation of the Society itself. 



" Differences of opinion, and consequent dissatisfaction, would also be not 



