121 



where known, not unfrequently made the subject of satire and 

 ridicule. 



It was not till after more than a century from the time of 

 the commencement of the Koyal Society's labours that any 

 other society sprung up; and even in the year 1788, when the 

 late Sir J. E. Smith, on the occasion of the death of the 

 celebrated naturalist Linnseus, started the Linnean Society — 

 the Royal Society's first offspring* — -so narrow was the range 

 of science, as then conceived, and so limited the number 

 of its followers, that I have heard it said formerly, by those 

 who could remember the circumstance, that some remon- 

 strated at the step, thinking it would affect the interests 

 and success of the Royal Society, and be likely to lead 

 to still further separations, leaving it in the end little or 

 nothing to do. 



Such other divisions and sub-divisions of the field of science 

 have, indeed, taken place, and corresponding institutions 

 sprung up, beyond anything that could have been looked for at 

 that time, without, however, in the slightest degree lessening 

 the work, or dimming the lustre, of the Royal Society, whose 

 world-wide reputation stands as high as ever. And all these 

 new societies have come into being since the beginning of 

 the present century, most of them within the recollection of 

 some among us. In 1804 arose the Horticultm-al Society ; in 

 1807, the Geological Society ; in 1826, the Zoological Society ; 

 these being followed in quick succession by the Entomological, 

 Botanical, Ornithological, Microscopical, Ethnological, Palaeon- 

 tographical, and Meteorological Societies, the latest being the 

 Anthropological Society, established only a very few years back. 



• " In 1788 the Linnean Society was founded This event 



merits more than a mere passing record, as presenting the first instance of a 

 sub-division of scientific labour in the metropolis, by the establishment of a 

 distinct association under Royal Charter." — Weld's Hist, of Boy. 5oc.,vol. ii., 

 p. 198. 



