THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 



discussion, even if the presence of specialists could be 

 secured, is no longer possible at ordinary meetings, and, 

 indeed, can only properly take place when the full com- 

 munication is in print. I may remark that the mixed 

 character of the papers read at one meeting of the Royal 

 Society is certainly not greater than is the case at the 

 meetings of the French Academic des Sciences. 



The adoption of the plan which I have suggested of 

 duplicate publication of course presupposes uniformity 

 of size of their publications with that adopted by the 

 Royal Society, by such of the special Societies as may 

 wish to avail themselves of the Royal Society's offer, 

 in itself an incidental advantage of some account. If, 

 therefore, an arrangement on these lines should meet the 

 approval of the Fellows, the present time would be an 

 appropriate one for the consideration whether some altera- 

 tion might not be made in our own publications with 

 great advantage to the more speedy appearance of com- 

 munications of some length, as well as to some reduction 

 in the cost, compared with the printing of them, as at 

 present, in the Society's Transactions. 



A change of great value in this direction could, I think, 

 be made by enlarging the size of the present Proceedings, 

 which, in consequence of their small size, are only suitable 

 for short papers which do not require extensive illustration, 

 to the larger size of royal octavo. The Proceedings might 

 then take the position of being the Society's chief publica- 

 tion, the Transactions appearing less frequently and being 



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