228 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



or value are elicited, to bring them before the Society for dis- 

 cussion and publication. It is true that, as regards what may 

 be called " big papers," that is, papers containing the result 

 of much labour, and embodying much new and valuable fact, 

 with or without important generalisations as the case may 

 be, our Society, with its limited pecuniary resources, cannot 

 expect to compete with the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh, or 

 any of the great London societies. We cannot ask an author 

 to present valuable work to us which we would not be in a 

 position to publish as it ought to be published. It must be 

 kept in mind that in none of these great societies to which 

 I refer is the annual subscription under £2, 2s., and their 

 membership under 400. What can we do with our 220 mem- 

 bers, and 12s. 6d. subscription, to compete with these ? 



Nevertheless I think we are right in requiring that papers 

 handed in, to be read at our meetings, shall be the result of 

 the personal observation and work of the writer, and not 

 mere compilations. Exhibitions of specimens, however, come 

 under quite a different category ; here the interest centres in 

 the opportunity afforded to members of seeing or closely 

 examining objects of special interest and rare occur- 

 rence, and the exhibitor is, in this case, not required to 

 accompany such exhibition by a paper containing original 

 matter. 



So far as our Proceedings are concerned, I think also that, 

 both for the purpose of economising our slender means, as 

 well as for the higher object of keeping up the character of 

 these volumes, it is inadvisable to publish papers which do 

 not contain observations and facts worth recording, from a 

 purely scientific point of view. Our yearly volume ought 

 not, in my opinion, ever to be looked upon as a sort of 

 popular magazine ; as such it never could emulate the Popular 

 Science Review, or even Science Gossip. But if it is true to its 

 own place and function it will, year by year, add one to a 

 series, which will, as time goes on, become indispensable to 

 every public library frequented by scientific workers for 

 purposes of work. I have said that we cannot expect men 

 to give in their big papers, but there are, or ought to be, 

 always plenty of little ones going, and these, especially such 



