DLCiiMuiiu 6, 1S94J 



NA TURE 



^o:^ 



of the Catalogue under authors' names has been completed, 

 and was issued in June of the present year. The Society is 

 indebted to several members of the Catalogue Committee who 

 have lent their scientitic knowledge to aid in the revision of the 

 proofs, and especially to the Treasurer, under whose experienced 

 eye every sheet in the catalogue has passed. The preparation 

 of copy for a supplementary volume, which will include papers 

 from a large number of periodicals not included in the existing 

 volumes, is now nearing completion. 



The Catalogue Committee hive held several meetings and 

 discussed some important questions. The proposed subject- 

 index to the existing catalogue has been the chief matter under 

 consideration, and the burning question of the respective merits 

 of an alphabetical and a classified index has been so far settled 

 as to make it possible to commence the work of transcription 

 and translation, nearly 40,000 slips being already finished, so 

 that when the details of the plan agreed upon have been finally 

 settled, as there is good hope they will be in the near future, 

 the preparation of the copy for the printer can be speedily pro- 

 ceeded with. Before, however, any final steps can be taken, 

 it will be necessary that the supplement volume of the catalogue 

 should have issued from the press. The preparations for this 

 volume are in active progress. 



A kindred subject, but one of still wider scope, has been 

 discussed by a special committee appointed by the Council at 

 their first meeting in the present session. The question, 

 namely, of a scientific subject-catalogue, which it is proposed 

 to carry out by means of international cooperation. This com- 

 mittee, with the sanction of the Council, have addressed a 

 circular letter to scientific societies and institutions in this 

 country and abroad, offering by way of preliminary sugges- 

 tions, first, that the catalogue should commence with the next 

 century ; secondly, that a central office or bureau should be 

 maintained by international contributions ; and third, that this 

 office should be supplied with all the information necessary for 

 the construction of the catalogue. The circular invites the 

 views on this subject of scientific bodies and scientific men, 

 without in any way committing the Society to farther action. 

 A large number of replies to this circular have been received, 

 many of them carefully prepared and able documents. They 

 will be submitted to the new Council of the Royal Society, and 

 will, I am sure, be most valuable in assisting it to judge as to 

 future proceedings. 



The principal question which the Library Committee have 

 had before them during the past session is the accumulation of 

 the stock of J'hilosofhual Transactions from the beginning of the 

 century to the present time. New racks have been erected in 

 the basement, which have partly relieved the pressure on our 

 space, but the Committee recognise the necessity of some 

 active measures being taken to increase the sale of this 

 accumulated stock. They are of opinion that the sale might 

 be much facilitated if the memoirs composing the volumes 

 published in the past were made separately available to the 

 public, as is done with those that are published at the present 

 time. On the advice of the committee, the Council have 

 empowered the Treasurer to treat with one of the leading 

 booksellers with the view of bringing some such arrangement 

 into effect. 



The collection of marble busts belonging to the Society, 

 which is of such personal and historical interest to all our 

 Fellows, has received a most important and valuable accession. 

 The sons of our former President, Mr. William Spottiswoode — 

 Messrs. Hugh and Cyril Spottiswoode — have presented to the 

 Society a marble bust of their father, by Woolner, which will 

 find in our apartments a fitting home among the busts of many 

 of our former Presidents and distinguished Fellows, and will 

 hand down to posterity a striking likeness of one who deserved 

 so well of the Society and whose premature decease we all still 

 deplore. 



The Mouse and Soiree Committee have discussed the 

 advisability of increasing the accommodation in the tea room, 

 .ind have presenied a report to the Council upon the subject. 

 The Council, while not disagreeing with this report, considered 

 it wiser, in the present state of finances, to defer the matter for 

 a time. 



A third report of the Water Research Committee has been 

 issued during the present year. It gives the results of further 

 experiments by Prof. Marshall Ward on the " Action of Light 

 on Bacillus .\nthracis," and on the " Bacteria of the Thames," 

 and the experiments of Prof. Percy Frankland on the 



NO. 1310, vor . 5 l] 



" Behaviour of the Typhoid Bacillus and of the Bacillus Coli 

 Communis in Potable Water," the whole filling 242 octavo 

 pages. 



Unusually large as was the amount of matter published last 

 year, this year the amount is even larger. In the mathematical 

 and physical section of the Philosophical Transactiotis, seven- 

 teen papers have been published, eighteen in the biological 

 section. The two sections together contain, in all, 1992 pages 

 of letterpress, and 112 plates ; to which must be added eight or 

 ten papers now passing through the press, and probably to be 

 issued before the close of the year. Of the Proceedings, ten 

 numbers have been issued, containing 1026 pages. As a result, 

 the finances of the Society are, I regret to say, in not such a 

 satisfactory condition as could be desired. The cost o' 

 the publications, which, last year, was far in excess of 

 what it was in previous years, and of what the Society 

 could really afford, has, in the year 1S94, amounted to nearly 

 ;£'326o, or about £<)qs more than it was in 1893. For litho- 

 graphy and engraving alone ;i^i5i6 have been paid, as againsr 

 £S11 last year. There is, moreover, an accumulation of 

 printed matter now almost in readiness to be issued, the cost of 

 which has still to be defrayed. To meet this extraordinary 

 expenditure it has been necessary to sell out enough of the 

 Society's funded capital to produce ^1000, and rigorous re- 

 trenchment will be necessary in order to avoid further loss ol 

 provision for continued work in future. While the Council 

 feels the importance of all the publications of the Society being 

 as completely illustrated and as fully detailed as the subjects 

 discussed may require, it is evident that some check must be 

 placed on the extent of the publications, and the best manner 

 of effecting this end is occupying the careful attention of the 

 Council. 



The establishment of the Faraday-Davy Research Labora- 

 tory, in connection with the Royal Institution, is a splendid 

 benefaction which science has gained during the past year, 

 through the untiring and grand generosity of Mr. Ludwig \Iond. 

 The Royal Society interests itself in all work contributing 

 towards the object for which it was founded — the increase ol 

 natural knowledge ; and while gratefully remembering the 

 assistance so generously given to it in the humble but highly 

 valuable work of cataloguing papers which describe the results 

 of scientific investigations already made, it hails with delight 

 this grand foundation of a practical laborator)', of which the 

 purpose is not the teaching of scientific truths already discovered, 

 but the conquering of fresh provinces from the great region of 

 the unknown in nature. 



The greatest scientific event of the past year is, to my mind, 

 undoubtedly the discovery of a new constituent of our atmo- 

 sphere. If anything could add to the interest which we must all 

 feel in this startling discovery, it is the consideration of the way 

 by which it was found. In his presidential address to Section 

 A of the meeting of the British Association at Southampton in 

 18S2, Lord Raylergh, after calling attention to Prout's law, 

 according to which the atomic weights of the chemical elements 

 stand in simple relationship to that of hydrogen, said : — -"Some 

 chemists have reprobated strongly the importation of A priori 

 views into the consideration of the question, and maintain that 

 the only numbers worthy of recognition are the immediate results 

 of experiment. Oihers, more impressed by the argument 

 that the close approximations to simple numbers cannot 

 be merely fortuitous, and more alive to the inevitable; 

 imperfections of our measurements, consider that th<- 

 experimental evidence against the simple numbers is of a 

 very slender character, balanced, if not outweighed, by th-- 

 1) priori argument in favour of simplicity. The subject i< 

 eminently one for further experiment ; and as it is now- 

 engaging the attention of chemists, we may look forward to the 

 settlement of the question by the present generation. The 

 time has, perhaps, come when a redetermination of the densities 

 of the principal gases may be desirable — an undertaking for 

 which I have made made some preparations." The arduous 

 work thus commenced in 1882, has been continued for twelve 

 years,' by Rayleigh, with unremitting perseverance. After 



t "On the rcl-itive Densities of Hydrogen .ind Oxygen. Preliininary 

 Notice," by Lord R.-iyleigti, February a, i3S3. '* On the Compcsition ■ f 

 Water." by Lord R.-iylcith, P'ebruary 26, 1889. "On the relative Densities 

 of Hydrogen and Oxygen. IL" By Lord Rayleigh, Februarj- 5. xSg:. 

 " On the Densities of the principal Gases," bylAjrd Rayleigh, March 23.1893. 

 "On an .-Vnomaly encountered in Determinations of the Density of Nitrogen 

 G.as." by Lord Rayleigh, April 19, 1894. All published in the PivceeHings 

 of the Royal Society. 



