PREFATORY NOTE. 



Any imperfections in this bibliography must be largely ascribed to the difficulty the 

 editor has experienced, in some cases, in obtaining information from members of the Society, 

 and to his own inability to supply the missing facts in the parliamentary library and other 

 institutions to which he has applied. On the whole, however, the bibliography, which is 

 modelled on that of the American Historical Association, now a Ijranch of the Smithsonian 

 Institution at "Washington, will be found as accurate as it is possible to make it, in view of 

 the very range it takes for nearly half a century. It will be, probably, of much advantage 

 to scientific and literary students when they wish to obtain all the literature on certain sub- 

 jects in which many members of the Royal Society have been earnest workers for years. 

 It is proposed to publish each year a similar bibliography of the work of the members of 

 the Royal Society, and to include the publications of deceased members, which have not 

 been available for the present volume. 



