1814.] on Don Rodriguex* Paper. 285 



of Philosoplnj for January, in as mild terms as I could. There is 

 nothing in the present communication to induce me to alter that 

 opinion ; on the contrary I consider it as still more exceptionable 

 and improper than the former. As to the tirade against the 

 council of the Royal Society, these gentlemen do not stand in need 

 of any defence from me ; nor indeed would it be decorous in me 

 to attempt it. I may just observe that there is no set of men more 

 apt to indulge in inaccurate or absurd views than mathematicians. 

 If this position stood in need of confirmation, it would be easy to 

 bring forward some of the most celebrated names botl) of former 

 and present times in confirmation of it. If a mathematician pre- 

 sents an absurd or trifling paper to the Royal Society, surely it is 

 iK)t incumbent on that learned body to print it, merely because it 

 is on a mathematical subject. Of the three papers mentioned by 

 Dr. G. as rejected by the Royal Society, I have seen only one, and 

 1 must say that, as far as I understand the subject, it appears to 

 me to be no demonstration at all. i have even seen a demonstra- 

 tion (by Mr. Playfair) of what the author of that paper endeavours 

 to refute, which I consider as conclusive. Surely it would liave 

 been very indecorous in the Royal Society to have published, ia 

 their Transactions, a fake refutation of an hypothesis of Sir Isaac 

 Newton. As to Colonel Mudge's Trigonometrical Survey, it con- 

 stitutes two quarto volumes. It could not therefore have found a 

 place in the Transactions; but must have been published apart. 

 Surely it was unreasonable, on the part of the Board of Ordnance, 

 to expect that the Royal Society, whose funds are derived from the 

 contributions of its members, and which is far from rich, should 

 be at the expense of publishing the results of a national under- 

 taking. It was the business of government to publish the book, 

 and accordingly this was done by the Board of Ordnance. The 

 British public are well aware, that the Royal Society stands quite 

 in a different predicament from the French Institute, or the Aca- 

 demy of Sciences of Berlin and Petersburgh. The memi>ers of 

 these institutions are pensioned by Government, and all the ex- 

 penses of tiieir publications defrayed by the public. Whereas in 

 Britain all this is done at the private expense of the individuals 

 forming the association. Surely they are at least entitled to refuse 

 the additional burden of publishing works undertaken by Govern- 

 ment for the good of the nation in general. 



Nor is Dr. Gregory more correct in his list of mathematical papers 

 published in the Philosophical Transactions, 'i hougli the |<apers of 

 Mr. Vincc, Professor Liix, Mr. Barrett, Dr. Gregory, and otheis were 

 refused admillance, for reasons into the validity of which it is not 

 my business to inquire, still the volumes of the Transactions con- 

 tain some of the most important mathematical papers that have 

 been puljli-^hcd for many years in any country of Europe. I shall 

 give the Hit of them for two years, 1811 and 1812, (the only 

 volumes that happen to he at hand,) merely to show the reader how 

 ver) partial and inaccurate Dr. Gregory's statemejit is. 



