The Royal Society 211 



correspondents in different parts of Europe, with a view to 

 adding specimens of interest to its collection, and obtain- 

 ing information of value to the industries of the country. 

 " Methinks," he writes, " it were worth our knowledge 

 whether there are not now some persons in Italy that know 

 the old Roman way of plaistering, and the art of tempering 

 tools to cut porphyry, the hardest of marbles " ; and, again : 

 " I am lately informed that there is a mineral salt plentifully 

 to be found in the mines of Calabria, which has this particu- 

 larity, that, being cast into the fire, cracks not, nor breaks 

 in pieces. A specimen of that also would be acceptable." 1 



The first communication from the then recently estab- 

 lished Academy of Sciences at Petrograd was received at 

 the last meeting over which Sir Isaac Newton presided. 

 After quoting the desire of the Czar to follow the English 

 example in encouraging and cultivating science, the letter 

 concludes with the assurance that the Russian Academicians 

 " are the more inclined to make their addresses to, and 

 desire most to have the approbation of, the Royal Society, 

 as being the first of its kind, and that which gave rise to all 

 the rest." 



The Royal Society has always encouraged the formation 

 of scientific bodies of similar aims in other parts of the United 

 Kingdom. In 1684 such a society was established at Dublin, 

 with full encouragement of the authorities of the Royal 

 Society, offered also to a similar effort made at Edinburgh 

 in 1705. In 1731 a separate society for the improvement of 

 medical knowledge was instituted in the latter city, but was 

 re-modelled so as to include other subjects in 1739. It was this 

 body which, under the name of " Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh," received its charter in 1783. The great work carried 

 out by the scientific men of Scotland and Ireland, described 

 in the preceding pages, is a sufficient indication of the influence 

 exerted by the Royal Societies of Edinburgh and Dublin, 

 which as also the Irish Academy of Sciences (founded in 

 1782) have always co-operated with the London Society in 

 their common aims. The Royal Society of Arts was founded 

 in 1753, for the promotion of Arts, Manufactures, and 



1 Weld's " History of the Royal Society," Vol. I., p. 189. 



2 



