Philosophical Transactions, 123 



Banks, who, as president of the Royal Society during a very 

 extended period, must have been well acquainted with the 

 real interests of science, thought lit to bequeath a small 

 fraction of their enormous property, to the establishment of 

 scientific prizes, or to any other similar purpose, it would be 

 presumption on the part of His Majesty's government to adopt 

 a measure, which, however plausible in appearance, must be 

 open to objections and liable to misapplication." We do not 

 mean to consent to this reply, because we are convinced that 

 even in the present slate of things, a very few thousand pounds, 

 granted with discernment to the calls of science, would pro- 

 duce eftects incalculably beneficial ; we are also convinced that 

 the Rumford and Copley medals, which are so judiciously 

 bestowed by the council of the Royal Society*, have been pro- 

 ductive of much honourable emulation; but yet we think the 

 opposite argument fairly inferable from the premises. 



If, however, we are not in error, the remedy of the evils 

 adverted to is not necessarily dependant upon extraneous aid. 

 That the Royal Society, as the parent establishment, claims 

 precedence, will not be disputed ; let it therefore stand at the 

 head of a Scientific College, and let the other Societies arrange 

 themselves as committees, each as heretofore pursuing their 

 individual avocations, under a chairman, a president, and 

 officers of their own ; let the meetings of the Royal Society, 

 and of the various scientific committees, be held under the 

 same roof, and their publications appear in the same volume, 

 either as communications to the Royal Society, or as the 

 Transactions of the various committees ; let the books, instru- 

 ments, and collections also be preserved in the same building ; 

 and let the expenses of the whole be defrayed from a general 

 fund raised as heretofore, by subscriptions to the Society and 

 its committees, but rendered infinitely more effective by con- 

 centration upon one object, instead of being frittered away in 

 the small items of separate establishments. 



We are quite aware that this scheme will be called Utopian 

 and chimerical, but much that has been thought impossible has 

 come to pass ; the steam-engine has done wonders in this way; 

 and when gas-lights were first talked of, we remember one 

 of the most eminent and profound men of science in this 

 or any other country, asserted that " a company might as 

 well be formed for lighting London with a slice of the moon, 

 as for carrying the gas from pit-coal through the streets of the 

 metropolis." It is not therefore impossible, we even trust, not 



* We wish itiiml boon prrmitted to lis to quote Dr. Wollaston's admirable 

 (lisrouriie (<> Uut Koyal Si)(iefy, upon the SOlii of November lasl, when llic 

 Otplcy iiiediil was adjiitbiMl to I'rotessor Oersted ot Copenhayuii. It 

 spukc vuluniL'b to the point before us. 



