168 RECORD OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



VI. That the meetings of the Society may not be wasted by unprofitable 

 debates, contrary to the intent and meaning of the fifth section of this chapter, 

 it is constituted, established, and ordained, that every motion or question, 

 proposed to be ballotted for by the Society, shall be fairly transcribed on 

 paper, and being signed by six or more Fellows of the Society, it shall be by 

 them delivered to one of the Secretaries at a meeting of the Society ; and shall 

 thereupon be read immediately after the declaration of the Presents on the 

 table ; and after being marked by the Secretary with the date of the day 

 when 'delivered, it shall be fixed up in the common Meeting-room of the 

 Society at the next ordinary Meeting; and on the Meeting next following the 

 same, it shall be put to the Ballot, unless those who have signed it agree to 

 withdraw it. 



'But nothing contained in this Statute is to be construed to extend to 

 matters relative to elections, or the ordinary business of the Society. 1 



The motions or questions proposed to be ' ballotted for ' must therefore 

 have had reference to matters of science. 



(gO Publications, Records, and Library. 



In Cap. XII, of the Statutes as amended in 1776, the quorum of the 

 Committee of Papers is raised from five to seven, and the part of the Statute 

 providing that there should be no entry of rejected papers is omitted. 



In Cap. XIII, ' Of the Manner of Publication of the Papers laid before the 

 Society,' the word * Librarian ' is substituted for that of Clerk ' ; also the 

 period during which surplus copies not required by Fellows must remain 

 before they are disposed of by the Council, is extended from one year (as in 

 1752) to five years. 



In the Statutes of 1776, Cap. XIV, Of the Books and Papers of the 

 Society, 1 differs somewhat from the corresponding Cap. XVI, ' Of the Books 

 of the Society, 1 in the Statutes of 1752. The copy of Statutes, the List of 

 Benefactors, and the Register of Fellows is omitted from the Charter Book. 1 

 The Statute concerning the Register Books, containing accounts of observa- 

 tions, experiments, &c., and the Statute concerning the Book of Letters, are 

 omitted. 



A new Statute (Stat. v) was introduced in 1776, to the effect that the 

 original copy of every paper read at the Society shall be considered as the 

 property of the Society ; and another (Stat. vi) provides for the care of the 

 papers read. And, lastly, a new Statute (Stat. vii) introduces, for the first 

 time, into the Statutes regulations concerning the use of the Library. The 



1 The Charter Book never did contain, as provided by the Statute, the Register of 

 Fellows, but only their signatures. The Society possesses, however, a volume now called 

 ' The Register ', which contains the names, with dates of election, of all the Fellows from 

 the foundation of the Society up to the year 1875. Since that date the Register is 

 continued in a second volume. 



