RESPONSE IN THE LIVING AND 



but placed in the Society's ' Archives ' a fate which has 

 befallen other notable papers before : e.g. that anticipation 

 of the kinetic theory of gases which was unearthed and 

 published by Lord Rayleigh a few years ago decades after 

 its writer's death. Here it may be explained that the 

 practice of the Royal Society with regard to the papers it 

 publishes in its ' Proceedings ' and ' Transactions ' differs 

 notably from that of the French Academy of Sciences, with 

 its ' Comptes Rendus.' In the latter every paper read is 

 printed, and issued forthwith on its writer's responsibility 

 alone, without thereby suggesting the formal acceptance of 

 the Academy, or even the approval of any of its members, 

 beyond the one who has thought enough of it to present it 

 to the meeting. The Royal Society, on the other hand, has 

 its Publication Committees, so that the issue of any paper 

 indicates that it has passed the scrutiny of one of these, 

 and with at least a preponderance of acceptance. There 

 is something to be said for each method : that of the French 

 is democratic, since strictly in the worker's interest, of 

 getting his idea known, without any delay ; that of the 

 English is in the corporate interest, and so far necessarily 

 hierarchic. Bad papers can thus more easily appear in the 

 ' Comptes Rendus ' than in the ' Proceedings.' For the latter, 

 novel ones may sometimes be rejected or, as in this in- 

 stance, shelved. This editorial process in any case is apt to 

 be slow ; for while papers read in Paris appear regularly, 

 at least in abstract, the week following, those at London 

 may take months, sometimes even a year or two, especially 

 when publication in the more dignified quarto form of 

 the ' Philosophical Transactions ' is concerned. Papers by 

 workers whose habitual soundness and accuracy have 

 become known to the* relevant committee, of course 

 get printed with little or no delay, and this had been 

 the case with all Bose's physical papers. For the 

 present one there was also no delay ; he had indeed 

 settled its fate himself, and the paper was relegated to 

 the Archives. 



