BAY AND PAL^ONTOGRAPniC.UL, SOCIETIES. 71 



The Ray Society was foxinded in the year 18i4, and " had its origin 

 in a wish expressed by the late Dr. Johnston, of Berwick, to some of his 

 scientific friends that some means could be devised for piinting such 

 works in Natural History as stand in need of extraneous assistance 

 to secm-e their pnbhcation." Many of the honoured pioneers who 

 constituted the first Council — names then and since celebrated in almost 

 every branch of Natural History— have passed away, but some happily 

 survive. Among the latter may be mentioned Professors Babington, 

 Balfour, Busk, and Owen, the Eev. M. J. Berkeley, and Sir P. de Malpas 

 Grey-Egerton, Bart. The first ofiicers were — President, Professor BeU; 

 Secretary, Dr. Lankester ; Treasurer, Dr. Bowerbank ; and Auditors, 

 Messrs. E. J. Quekett and Robert Waiington. The number of members 

 was 225, the subscription being one guinea each. The first annual 

 meeting was held on 2nd October, IBM. Since that date the number 

 of members has increased to more than 400 at the present time, and a 

 sum of about £22,700 has, during the thirty-three years that have 

 elapsed, been expended in the pubUcation of thirtj'-three Standard Works 

 or Monographs in various departments of Natural History. It would be 

 interesting to append a hst of these, but space will not permit, neverthe- 

 less, I cannot refrain from mentioning the Monographs of the Nudibran- 

 chiate MoUusca, by the late Messrs. Alder and Hancock ; the Cirripedia, 

 by Dr. Darwin ; the Spongiadse, by the late Dr. Bowerbank ; the Oceanic 

 Hydrozoa, by Professor Huxley ; and the Fresh "Water Polyzoa and Tubu- 

 larian Hydroids, by Professor Allman, (for the last of which the Royal 

 Society's Gold Medal has recently been awarded.) as being among the most 

 elaborate and costly works that have ever been issued. To give an idea of 

 the Uberal way in which these works are produced it may be interesting 

 to mention that the cost of the pnbhcation of the last named work — 

 without, of course, a single farthing being paid to the learned author — 

 inclusive of paper, printing, engraving, colouring, and binding was £900. 



The following volumes of this Society are nearly ready, •viz., Spongiada, 

 Vol. IV., Aphides, Vol. 11. ; and the Copepoda, Vol. I. ; and many other 

 interesting works, are contemplated. 



It is probable that the success which attended the establishment of 

 the Ray Society may have induced geologists to wish for a similar 

 organisation for the publication of works on palseontology, which scarcely 

 came within the scope of the operations of the former Society. For this 

 they had not long to wait. "The Palajontographical Society was 

 estabhshed in the year 1847, chiefly through the exertions of the late 

 Dr. Bowerbank, for the purpose of figuring and describing the whole of 

 the British Fossils, and has since that period issued thirty-one quarto 

 volumes, containing 8,552 pages and 1,259 quarto plates, and has 

 described 4,623 species of British FossUs, illustrating the plants, corals, 

 echinodermata, Crustacea, mollusca, fishes, reptiha, mammaha, &c., of 

 the geological formations." Like the elder Society, the Palasontographical 

 has lost many of its original members who formed the first CotmcU. 

 Those who sm-vive are Professor BeU, Sir P. de Malpas Grey-Egerton, Bart., 

 Professor Prestwich, and Mr. Alfred ■S\Taite. The first officers were : — 



