Eleventh Annual Meeting. 365 



scientific society is judged by the number and value of its publications, and not by its 

 credit balance in the bank, and J am very much afraid that the measures the Board 

 was obliged to take have had a discouraging effect on the production of original work 

 by the members of the Institute. To my mind, the surest and most natural way of 

 encouraging original research is to provide ample facilities for the publication with the 

 least possible delay of all the results that are deserving of being so published. Particu- 

 larly do I deplore the discontinuance of the issue of the Proceedings in several parts during 

 the year. The arrangements for their issue in the form they were beginning to assume 

 entailed a very considerable amount of work for the Hon. Editors and the Publication 

 Committee, but the frequent issue of the Proceedings was affording a very useful 

 means of letting members of one district institute know what the others were doing ; 

 and there is no doubt that they were encouraging work, especially by many of our 

 younger members, by the speedy publication of short papers and notes embodying 

 original observations that would never have been preserved if they had had to be held 

 over for many months for the yearly volume of the Transactions ; moreover, we 

 must remember that every published paper tends to suggest and stimulate the writing of 

 others. 



It is evident that if the ordinary expenses of this Board and the printing of our 

 publications are to be limited to what can be done with the yearly grant of £500 the 

 usefulness of the Institute will be very greatly hampered, and that it will be unable to 

 take that large and increasing share in promoting science that we all wish to see it per- 

 form. The claim that has been made for an increase in the statutory annual grant is 

 therefore fully justified ; and if we consider the conditions of the country and of the 

 Institute when the grant was fixed at £500, forty-five years ago, and compare them with 

 the present, it will be seen that if the grant were doubled it would only be bringing it 

 into reasonable relation to the requirements of the Institute for the immediate future, 

 and that the whole of it could be used with great advantage. Personally, however, I 

 am of opinion that the Institute will never be able to take that independent position 

 that is absolutely essential for the real success of a purely scientific society so long as 

 we are entirely dependent on a Government grant, and 1 look forward to the time when 

 we shall be freed from that dependence by the receipt of funds from other sources. 1 

 will return to this point presently. 



But there is another unsatisfactory feature in connection with our finances. Natu- 

 rally, we wish to see the Institute's work extended and the number of its members 

 increased, and yet under our present regulations increase of membership, far from 

 strengthening our financial position, weakens it by necessitating the issue of additional 

 volumes of the Transactions without any additional increase to our funds. This is 

 essentially an unstable position. By the Act, every member of the district Institutes 

 is ipso facto a member of this Institute, and every additional member of the Institute 

 should be an addition to its strength financially as well as scientifically. It seems to 

 me that this can only be done by a levy or contribution per member towards the general 

 funds of the Institute. This need be only very small in amount ; half a crown per 

 member would be quite sufficient, and would materially strengthen our funds. The 

 proposal is by no means new ; in the history of our own Institute there are instances 

 where a levy on the district Institutes has been made for the funds of the controlling 

 body, and it is the method adopted by practically every body that consists of branches 

 the common interests of which are entrusted to and controlled by a central executive. 

 In the case of the Institute it would have other advantages. Some of the smaller 

 Institutes find it difficult to continue as purely scientific societies requiring the usual 

 subscription of one guinea for membership, and are forced either to reduce the fee oi 

 to offer other advantages of membership of a different character, while they still claim 

 that they are entitled to a copy of the Transactions for each member. If by regulation 

 these Institutes paid to our funds a small contribution for each member requiring the 

 volume, it would enable us to define accurately the members of the Institute entitled 

 to this privilege, while the local society would still be free to accept associates on other 

 conditions, and, if they wished, at a lower annual subscription ; and the unfortunate 

 differences which have in some cases occurred as to the number of volumes claimed 

 would no longer arise. It would also enable any Institute to establish sections for 

 particular purposes, and to allow of membership of the sections on special conditions, 

 without raising questions as to whether they were to be considered members of the 

 Institute or not. 



This, then, would be one means of strengthening our finances, and there are other 

 methods that I need not enter upon now, but there is one general source that I wish 

 to refer to. Other learned societies usually have considerable sums donated or be- 

 queathed to them either for general purposes or for some special research or investiga- 



