144 Moj/al Societl/. 



appeal to the very serious amount of irritation which it produced 

 amongst you in the course of the last year, though originating in 

 the most trivial causes. It was chiefly with a view to avoid incon- 

 veniences of this kind, and to provide an outlet for the proper ex- 

 pression of opinion, when any just occasion of complaint might 

 exist, or any extraordinary circumstance occur, and to terminate 

 disputes whenever unfortunately they might arise, that the Council, 

 at the last revision of our statutes, passed a by-law, as they were 

 fully authorized to do, which makes it imperative upon the President 

 and Council to call an extraordinary meeting of its Members, upon 

 the due presentation of a requisition for that purpose, signed by at 

 least six Fellows, and setting forth, in specific terms, the objects for 

 which it was required to be summoned, provided those objects be 

 not inconsistent with the charter and statutes of the Society. Such 

 extraordinary meetings being strictly domestic, and confined to the 

 Fellows of the Society only, appear to me not merely to offer a suf- 

 ficient security against any great mismanagement of the affairs of 

 the establishment, but likewise to protect your ordinary meetings 

 from those irregular and somewhat tumultuary discussions on mat- 

 ters of business, or personal conduct, which might otherwise be in 

 danger of arising. 



I believe that many persons have expressed a wish that the regula- 

 tions of this Society should be so far relaxed as to allow, in conformity 

 with the practice of some other similar establishments, discussions 

 upon the papers, and those papers only, which are read before us ; I 

 confess, for my own part, that I am not at present prepared to accede 

 to this recommendation. A practice which has been sanctioned by 

 the usage of more than a century and a half, and found to be produc- 

 tive of scientific results unrivalled for their extent and value, should 

 not be abandoned by us without the most mature consideration ; and 

 though I am the last person to recommend a slavish submission to 

 the dictates or to the customs of antiquity, which may be unsuited 

 either to the altered circumstances of modern times, or incapable of 

 defence upon other and independent grounds, yet a reverence is 

 justly due both to maxims and observances which have been sanc- 

 tioned by high authorities, or connected with great and important 

 public benefits. It may be quite true that such discussions would 

 tend materially to increase the personal interest which is taken, by 

 many of our members, in our proceedings ; but when we consider 

 the abstract and abstruse nature of many of the papers which come 

 before us, and which no single reading can make perfectly intel- 

 ligible, even to the best-instructed hearer, as well as the vast variety 

 of subjects which they comprehend, I think we may fairly infer 

 that such discussions would rarely add much to the stock of facts 

 or of reasonings which they contain, or that their influence would be 

 materially felt in the publications of your Transactions, which have 

 always formed, and which ought always to form, the great object of 

 the foundation of this Society, and the only means by which its cha- 

 racter and influence can continue to be maintained unimpaired 

 throughout the civilized world. When we likewise take into further 



