ENDOWxMENT FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 6S'6 



piiblicatiou, is one of the jjn'utest incitements to eoiuplete and tlioiougli 

 original scientific work. 



Of the I'^noJish societies tlie Koyal Society is the olch'st, haA'inii" been 

 chartered in 1()(>2. It has jmblished 18L volumes of Transactions and 

 aboufe 50 volumes of Proceed in y a. For these purposes, iu 1881 the 

 expenditure was between *11,000 ami Jjsl2,0()(). It has property to the 

 value of about two-thirds of a million of dollars, more than half of which 

 is in trust funds, held for scientific uses. The income on the trust 

 funds in 1891 was abont !^17,r)()0.* In 1828 Dr. Wollaston in giving* it 

 slO.O()(> in 3 per cent, ccmsols "to promote scientific resear(;hes," 

 charged ui)on the society "not to hoard the income parsimoniously, 

 but to expend it liberally for the objects named." 



The Eoyal Institution of Great I>ritain was founded m 1779, largely 

 through our countryman James Thompson, of Kumford, Vt., afterwards 

 Count Rumford. In 1888 it had property and invested funds for general 

 puri)oses to the amount of .*3r>0,0()0, and about s40,0{)9 of invested 

 funds for the maintenance of its three i)rol'essors. In 1887 it expended 

 about $2,090 in i)ublications, and it has issued about 40 volumes.! 



The Liinnean Society, now furnished by the (lOvernment Avith })er- 

 manentaccommodations in Burlington House, free of rent, was founded 

 by Sir James E. Smith in 1788, and is devoted to botany and zoology. 

 Its property amounts to about 832,000, but it has no endowed funds 

 for scientific investigation. For some years past its receipts, mainly 

 from contributions, have been about ilO,000 a year, of which one-half, 

 about $5,000, is spent on its publications, Avhich now number lu^.arly 50 

 volumes of Transactio)i.s in (piarto, and as many more of its Journal. 

 In 1888 87,000 were expended in publication.! 



Next in order of time is the IJritish Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, founded in 1831. It is sustained chiefly by yearly contribu- 

 tions. Its invested funds amount to about 802,000, Its income and 

 coutributions are about 810,000 annually, out of which it approi)riates 

 from 80,(M>0 to 87,000 per annum for the encouragement of scientific 

 investigations, and about $1,800 annually for its yearly volume of pro- 

 ceedings. Its publications now nnmber twenty -fiAe volumes.§ 



The Ray Society was founded in 1811. It was named after the liev. 

 John liay, who lived IVom 1<)28 until 1705. Flaller, himself one of the 

 greatest scientists of his time, Avriting in 1771, in the full light of Liu- 

 naeus'fame, calls Ray " the greatest botanist within the memory of mau."|| 

 The society has ]>ublish(Ml about fifty volumes of scientific works of the 

 highest importance. I have not seen any statisti<;s concerning its means 

 or acquisitions; nor have 1 found an,\- financial report of the scientific 

 societies of Edinburgh or Dublin. 



* Proccedhtf/H, 1891, vol. i,, j). 235. 



t Reiwrt, 1888, p. 13. 



\rroceedhujH [May 4, 1888], 1890, pp. 15, 45. 



^Report, 1891, pp. Ixxxvii to f. Tt!. 



IBihliotheca Botanka. 



