Science in Public Affairs 



in London, and periodically issue a series of oceano- 

 graphic charts. Amongst the purely scientific 

 societies, that which attains to the largest mem- 

 bership is the Royal Geographical, with its 4180 

 members. The functional activities of the Geo- 

 graphical Society are described as follows in the 

 Science Year-book : 



I. MEETINGS. Weekly, November-June, evening. 

 Anniversary, 4th Monday in May. 



II. PUBLICATIONS. The Geographical Journal; monthly. 

 Year-book and Record; and various special publications. 



III. MISCELLANEOUS. Medals : Two Royal Gold Medals, 

 the Founder's and the Patron's, awarded annually; and the 

 Victoria Medal at intervals. Money grants are also made 

 from trust funds. A fine library of upwards of 37,000 books 

 and pamphlets is maintained, and a map-room. The latter 

 receives a Government grant of ,500 per annum, on condition 

 that the public shall have access to the collection. 



Now the monthly Geographical Journal, the chief 

 organ of the society, is an invaluable publication, 

 but the only person who, in all probability, reads 

 it through is its own editor, and that is as it should 

 be. Life is too short to read the Journal of the 

 Geographical or any other scientific society. But 

 what every one should do is to utilise the spiritual 

 organisation whose visible organs are the whole 

 series of scientific periodicals. To do this we must 

 know how to consult the files of these periodicals ; 

 in other words, how to put and answer questions 

 through their pages. All these learned periodicals 

 would be more popular were the common and 

 obvious fact known to editors and proprietors of 

 newspapers as conceivably some day it may be 



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