478 Extracts from the Minute- Book of the Linnean Sóciety. 
* 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 
niat the scientific reputation of the Society itself. 
“Differences of opinion, and consequent dissatisfaction, would also be not 
