206 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



206 





should be published on the first Monday of every month. After the 

 fifth number came out (June, 1665), the public meetings of the 

 members were discontinued on account of the plague which then 

 raged ; but it appears from a letter written by Mr. Boyle, at Oxford, 

 nburg, who remained in London, that several of the members 

 -n in the former city, and that they met and made experi- 

 ments at hia lodgings. From these experiment and the communica- 

 tions made by some of the members, there were formed three more 

 numbers of the ' Transactions : ' these were published at Oxford ; but 

 the ninth and all the succeeding numbers came out in London. The 



the work was changed in 1679 to that of ' Philosophical 



when Dr. Hooke became the editor ; but the former title 

 was restored in January, 1683, with No. 143, which was published by 

 Dr. Plot, who was thi-ii the secretary. 



The council met .igiin in Grtham College, in February, 1666, but 

 the public meetings of the society did not take place till June in that 

 year. In the same year the great fire, which laid nearly all London in 

 ashes, having compelled the authorities of the city to take possession 

 of the rooms hitherto occupied by the society, the latter gratefully 

 accepted the offer of apartments in Arundel House, and it met there 



first time in January, 1687. Tiie munificent owner of the 

 mansion, Mr. Henry Howard of Norfolk (afterwards earl marshal of 



the same time presented the society with the library 

 had been purchased by his grandfather, Thomas, earl of Anmdel, 

 and which ha/1 formerly belonged to Matthew Corvinus,king of Hun- 

 valuable library, consisting of several thousand printed 

 volumes and numerous manuscripts, thus became the property of the 

 society, wliieh immediately took measures to put it under the care of 

 iU own officers, and it has been subset] uently greatly increased by 

 us and purchases. Being probably anxious to trespass as little 

 a* possible on the hospitality of the noble family to whom the mansion 

 belonged, the society proponed (November, 1667) to raise, by subscrip- 

 tion among- its members, money to build a college for itself ; and by 

 May in the following year 1000/. were subscribed. Mr. Howard at the 

 same time generously promised to give the ground for the purpose. 

 The same gentleman also offered a design for the building, and both 

 Dr. dnhioplMr Wren and Mr. Hooke gave plans; Imt it does not 

 appear that the project was carried any further. In October, 1674, at 

 tli>' i'r. :'... f the (ircshaul professors, the society returned to its 

 former apartments in that college, which had now the name of the 

 ngc. The west gallery was cleared out for the society as 

 a repository, and tl- long gallery as a library for the reception of the 

 books, which h.td till then remained at Arundel House. 



Boon after this time the prosperity of tin- society seems to have 



I some diminution. In 1667, when Dr. Sprat's 'History 'was 



i.ere were nearly 200 members; in 1073, it appears that 



inber was only 14*!, and of these 71) were persons who had long 



neglected to pay their subscriptions. This great number of d 



gave much uneasiness to those who wished well to the society ; and 



the Litter, besides making pressing applications for the arrears, seriously 



contemplated an attempt to enforce payment by legal processes. It 



doe* not appear that this last measure was ever put in practice, and 



the council adopted a more effectual means of promoting the welfare 



nf the society in charging themselves with the duty of delivering 



lectures on philosophical subjects, and in providing a number of good 



experiment*. The first lecture, in pun<iian<-r of thin plan, appears to 



en delivered in 1'174. by .Sir William IVtty, and it was ordered 



1. The prcxident (Ixml Brouncker) also proposed, in 1668, 



that a silver medal, worth about twenty shillings, should be given to 



. not a curator, who should make before the society any 



]*rticn!.irly up ritorious eiperima 



Heir, the relict nf Mr ne of the earliest 



member*, ! . a sum of money for the purpose of 



loyal Society ; this did not however come into o|>eration 

 till 17 .:_ first was delivered by Dr. Stuart. The Bakerian 



lecture on electro-chemistry was 1774, and the first was 



. incy of the society a due attention to the characters ol 

 the person* admitted as fellows does not appear to have been always 

 and, in consequence, many join, ,1 who neither paid the fee* 

 my information at the meetings, and, at the same 

 time, the number of those who were excused the payments was 

 found t<i bear too great a proportion to i In order to 



Ute*e evils, in 1682, the president, Sir <'l>r!-r..|.],. , \\'r. n, Brought in 

 the draught of a statute in which it was provided that any person pro- 

 posing candidate for admission nliouM give his name to some mem- 

 ber of the council ; at the next or at some following 'meeting of il,, 

 council, it was to be considered whether the proposed candidate was 

 likeljr to be useful to the society or not ; if the members were satisfied 

 on this head, the candidate was to be foinnlly proposed at the next 

 niseliiift. and afterwards balloted for as UMti;il. On hi- ! tio.t he was 

 to sign the statute book, and on or before being admitted, he was to 

 pay the prescribed fees. In the same year it was agreed that none 

 except foreigners should be exempted from the payments. It is to 

 be presumed that the persons who were excused the payment of th 

 admission-fees or the weekly subscriptions were such as, from tli 

 pressure of their circumstances, were unable to incur the expense, or 



such as, from the services which they rendered to the society, might 

 ustly claim the exemption : among those who petitioned to be 

 excused on the former ground is to be found the name of Newton, 

 ,hen resident at Cambridge. 



It was proposed, in October, 1674, to refuse to strangers the per- 

 mission, which had been before granted, to be present at the meetings 

 of the society, from an opinion that members might be unwilling to 

 jring forward their communications in the presence of such persons. 

 And at the same time it was proposed that the members should bind 

 ;hemselves not to divulge what passed in their meetings, it being 

 thought prejudicial to the interests of the society that the particulars 

 of the experiments and communications should be made known before 

 they appeared in the printed ' Transactions.' We read that, on one 

 occasion only, a lady was permitted to be present at the meetings of 

 ;he society; this was in Kiti?, when the Duchess of Newcastle, having 

 expressed a wish to that effect, it was agreed to invite her grace, and 

 some experiments, which had been prepared for the purpose, were 

 repeated in her presence. 



By the death of Dr. Wilkins (then bishop of Chester), one of the 

 earliest members, the society obtained a legacy of 400i., which, in 

 January, 1675, was laid out in the purchase of an annual income of 24/. 

 from certain fee farm rents at Lewes, in Sussex ; and in January, 1682, 

 the college and lands in Chelsea, which had been granted to the society, 

 were sold to the king for 13001 ; this sum was soon afterwards vested 

 in African and East Indian stock, and from that time the society began 

 to possess a permanent revenue. Till the year 1668 no fixed salary 

 was allowed to the secretary ; but Mr. Oldenburg, who had long held 

 that post, received 50/. occasionally, and in that year it was agreed to 

 allow him 40/. per annum. After his death (1677) two secretaries were 

 appointed, with salaries; but in 1685, Mr. Aston and Mr. Robinson 

 declining on a sudden to serve the society, the council resolved, in 

 order to avoid the inconvenience of being so deserted in future, to 

 have two honorary secretaries ; it was agreed also to have a secretary 

 with a fixed salary to transact the business, and the qualifications 

 required in the person who should fill the latter post are stated at 

 length in Birch's ' History,' vol. iv. Of the former, Sir John Hoskyus 

 and Dr. Gale were the two first; and in January, 1080, Mr. Edmund 

 Halley was appointed the paid secretary, at 50?. per annum. 



In 1701, the society, which till this time had continued to hold its 

 meetings in Oresham College, removed to a spacious house which it 

 purchased in Crane Court, Fleet Street. This house afforded room for 

 the meetings, for the library, and for the museum of curiosities ; and 

 here the reading of papers and the exhibition of experiments took 

 place, as before, till the year 1782, when the government assigned to 

 the society apartments in Somerset House. On removing to the latter 

 place, it became necessary to dispose of the museum for want of room ; 

 but this inconvenience was obviated in 1826, when the rooms formerly 

 used by the commissioners of the lottery were given up to the society. 

 The rooms in Somerset House were resumed by the government in 

 18S7, other and more commodious apartments being granted in their 

 stead in Burlington House, Piccadilly. 



In 17":! Sir Isaac Newton was appointed president of the society, 

 and this honourable post was held by the greatest of philosophers till 

 his death, which happened in 17-7. The experiments of Newton on 

 telescopes and on li^lit and colours were amongst the li 

 whieh gave a value to the ' Transactions ' of the society; and tin 



i it* sense of the honour which it derived from being able to 

 number him among iti fellows, by publishing in 1686, the first edition 

 of the ' I'rincipi:'.' [ l'ittx< im.] 



The service rendered to the cause of science from the be^innin^ of 

 the 18th century has earned for the society the respect and gratitude 

 of every man to whom the advancement of the human im 

 object of high consideration. The society numbers among tho.-, wlio 

 are and who have been its members some of the brightest orn:< 

 of philosophy anil human nature ; and it may be said that a large pro- 

 portion of the discoveries by which the face of science has been 

 changed have been made known to the world through the papers 

 published in the volumes of its ' Transactions.' 



It has been said above that the ' Philosophical Transactions ' were at 

 first published in monthly numbers : theM were afterwards collected into 

 volumes, and, from the commencement in 1065 to the year 1800,the work 

 consisted of 90 volumes. From that time a volume has come out annually, 

 and, up to the present year (1861), 150 volumes have been puM 

 It apjieara that, till the 47th volume was published, the printing 

 of the ' Transactions ' was entirely the act of the several secretaries^ 

 the society never interesting itself further in that matter than by 

 occasionally recommending the revival of the publication, when from 

 any circumstance it appeared to be suspended. But in 1752 a com- 

 mittee was appointed to consider the papers which were read before 

 the society, and to select such as should be judged most proper to 

 appear in the future ' Transactions,' and this practice has ever since 

 been followed. The society, however, constantly declares that it 

 n a body, gives its opinion on any subject, whether of nature or 

 art, which comes before it, the facts and reasonings stated in their 

 papers resting entirely on the credit and judgment of their respective 

 authors. 



Honorary recompenses have been liberally bestowed by the society 

 on (mi-sons distinguished by their discoveries in pure science or in phi- 



