656 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



that the peak is not worth the pains. But success is the only 

 sound proof of capacity ; and the caste-mark on the brow of 

 the fakir is — failure. 



Learned Procrastination 



I yield to no one in respect for the Royal Society ; but my admiration would be 

 increased if I were convinced that it was taking its full place in the life of the 

 Empire as the great central organisation for the encouragement of natural science 

 by every possible means. I fear, however, that before it reaches this position it 

 must reform itself in many directions. For example, as with many learned 

 societies, its procedure regarding the publication of papers seems to many of us to 

 be out of date ; and young men, especially, have several times commented 

 bitterly to me of the delay and other difficulties caused by the present rules of the 

 Society. The following case is one regarding the facts of which I can personally 

 vouch. Early last July a Fellow of the Society submitted an article on a scientific 

 subject regarding which he is an amateur, and on submitting it asked specially 

 that it might be returned at an early date if it was not likely to be acceptable. 

 As a matter of fact it was kept for several months before the author heard 

 anything further on this point. He was then informed that there were con- 

 siderable difficulties regarding its publication, as one out of the three referees to 

 whom the paper had been sent was opposed to its publication ; and the final 

 result was that the author had to withdraw it and received it back in December 

 last, more than five months after it had been submitted. Even then, according to 

 the rules, he was asked to return the manuscript to the Society. What information 

 was given to him was supposed to be confidential, the names of the referees and 

 the objections made by one of them being kept secret, so that he could not lodge a 

 formal complaint ; while the Society apparently escaped from the onus of formal 

 rejection by taking refuge in the intricacies of its procedure. Really, is this sort 

 of thing proper for the present day ? The author admitted himself to be merely 

 an amateur and had no grounds for complaining if the article was not good 

 enough for the Society ; but he has grounds for complaining at the long delay, 

 which appears to be totally unnecessary and due merely to procrastination, 

 since there seems to be little excuse for keeping for five months a paper which 

 can be read in an hour or two ; and it is doubtful whether he can now ever 

 publish it anywhere, although two of the referees approved of it. 



The general principles upon which such a meticulous attitude is adopted by 

 the Society towards papers are at least open to discussion. It really does not 

 matter much whether a paper is a little below par, because its demerits will easily 

 be detected by expert readers and the cost of printing nowadays is extremely 

 small. On the other hand such delay as occurred in this case is very discouraging 

 to contributors, whose future work is often blocked for months in consequence, 

 while they may lose priority. And in fact, in this case another paper covering 

 nearly the same ground had just appeared without the knowledge of the author, 

 or apparently of the referees, a little before he submitted his article, so that he 

 has now lost what credit he might have obtained if his article had been promptly 

 brought out. Then again the extraordinary secrecy with which these matters 

 are conducted appears to be quite behind the times. We do not wish our articles 

 to be subjected to the secret condemnation of a Vehmgericht, while I have heard 

 young men moot the suspicion that the secret referees may refuse papers and 



