236 RECORD OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



with the signatures or names of proposers and supporters appended ; these 

 began with the year 1731. 



In addition to the volumes above enumerated there are four long sets of 

 guard-books, of which one consists of thirty -nine volumes and includes the MSS. 

 of early memoirs communicated to the Society, grouped for the most part under 

 subjects. This series contains documents dating from before the grant of the 

 Charter to the year 1741. It consists of about 2,500 items, which have 

 recently been completely catalogued by Sir Arthur Church, F.R.S., under the 

 title of 'Classified Papers', and an alphabetical list of the authors with 

 references has been printed by him. 1 The second series of guard-books is 

 arranged chronologically, and comprises both memoirs and letters to the 

 number of 3,650. It consists of 127 volumes and covers the period 1741 to 

 1806. This series has also been catalogued by Sir Arthur Church. 2 The 

 third and fourth series consist of the original MSS. of (i) papers which have 

 been published in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' and the * Proceedings ', and 

 (ii) the papers read before the Society but 'archived', without being published. 

 These are bound in separate sets, and are preserved in the lower part of the 

 Society's building. 



Other MSS. connected with individual Fellows are the great collection of 

 Boyle papers, bound in fifty-three volumes; five volumes of Dr. Sherard's 

 correspondence, being letters addressed to William Sherard, F.R.S., many years 

 British Consul at Smyrna and founder of the Sherardian Professorship of 

 Botany at Oxford; and the Boole MSS., being six cases of papers by 

 Prof. George Boole. F.R.S., relating to mathematics and logic. These 

 collections are classified and arranged. The Sherard letters have been 

 numbered and catalogued and an Index Nominum to them has been printed by 

 Sir Arthur Church. 



All the manuscripts in the Archives are available for consultation by 

 Fellows of the Society and persons duly introduced, under conditions pre- 

 scribed by Statute (Chap. XVI). 



1 ' Some Account of the " Classified Papers " in the Archives [of the Royal Society] 

 with an Index of Authors, compiled by A. H. Church, D.Sc., F.R.S., Oxford, Printed for 

 the Author, 1907.' In addition to what is contained in this pamphlet Sir Arthur Church 

 has prepared a complete manuscript catalogue of the titles of the Papers in this series, 

 forming a large folio volume. By this great labour he has provided the Society with 

 a means of readily finding any paper belonging to the period named. 



2 ' Some Account of the " Letters and Papers" of the Period 1741-1806 in the Archives 

 [of the Royal Society] with an Index of Authors, compiled by A. H. Church, D.Sc., F.R.S., 

 Oxford, Printed for the Author, 1908.' In this case also Sir Arthur Church has compiled 

 a voluminous manuscript Calendar of the subjects of the letters and papers, thereby greatly 

 facilitating reference to them. These manuscript volumes are deposited in the Library 

 of the Royal Society. 



