CHAPTER IV 



THE TRUSTS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY * 



THE following succinct account of the various trusts which the Society 

 administers, their origin and progress, the application of the income of the 

 funds, and their present financial position, follows the alphabetical order in 

 which the trusts are arranged on the annual balance sheet of the Society. 

 Full particulars of capital, income, and expenditure in each case are clearly 

 given in that sheet and are reprinted in the ' Year-book \ A larger amount of 

 detail as to the foundation of the older funds will be found in Weld's 'History 

 of the Royal Society \ and in an anniversary address delivered by the late 

 Mr. Spottiswoode, as treasurer, in 1874. 



No. 1. BAKERIAN AND COPLEY MEDAL FUND. 



There has for many years been only one amalgamated fund for these two 

 objects. Through successive accumulations, owing in part to no medal having 

 been awarded in some years, it now consists of 4Q3 9*. 8d. 2% per cent. 

 Annuities. The Bakerian Lecture originated in 1775, through a bequest of 

 Mr. Henry Baker, F.R.S., of X J 100, for an oration or discourse, to be spoken 

 or read yearly by some one of the Fellows of the Society, on such part of 

 natural history or experimental philosophy, at such time and in such manner 

 as the President and Council of the Society for the time being shall please to 

 order and appoint. In case no lecture be given, there is a pain of forfeiture 

 attached to the bequest. The payment to the lecturer has for many years 

 been a fixed sura of 4?. 



The Copley Medal, which has long been regarded as the highest scientific 

 distinction that the Royal Society can bestow, originated in a legacy of 100 

 from Sir Godfrey Copley, Bart., F.R.S., received in 1709. The testator 

 directed that this sum should be laid out in experiments or otherwise for the 

 benefit of the Society, as they shall direct and appoint. For many years the 

 interest of the fund was paid to Dr. Desaguliers, Curator to the Society, 2 

 for various experiments made before it, but in 1736 Martin Folkes, who 

 subsequently became President of the Society, proposed to render Sir Godfrey 

 Copley's donation more beneficial than at that time it was. His suggestion 



1 Reprinted in the main from a paper by the late Sir John Evans, K.C.B., Treas. R.S., 

 in Roy. Soc. Proc., vol. Ivii, p. 202, but revised up to date, and with particulars of the 

 trusts subsequently added. 



2 See ante, p. 32. 



