138 ARTHUR E. SHIPLEY 



health, with weak eyes, a shght stammer, and 

 a memory treacherous to the last degree, he 

 was yet one of the most helpful of friends and 

 universally popular alike at the court of three 

 kings, and in the society of men of letters, men 

 of business and men of science. In spite of 

 the fact that he was the first to distinguish a 

 mixture from a compound, to define an ele- 

 ment, to prepare hydrogen though he did not 

 recognise its nature, he had in him the touch 

 of an amateur, but an amateur of genius. His 

 style in writing was unusually prolix and he 

 seldom followed out his discoveries to their 

 ultimate end. 



It was men such as these that re-established 

 the Royal Society in 1660. Exactly a century 

 earlier, the first scientific society, the Aca- 

 demia Secretorum Naturae of Naples had its 

 origin. This was followed by several others in 

 Italy and in France, most of them but short- 

 lived. Among English or Teutonic folk, the 

 Royal Society was the earliest to appear, and, 

 even if we include the scientific societies of the 

 world, it has had the most continuous exist- 

 ence. Indeed, before its birth, it underwent a 



