40 MEMOIR OF ALFRED SMEE. [CHAP. V. 



This year lie was elected member of the Hunterian Society. 



During the same year (1848), Mr. Smee's mind seems also to 

 have been bent on setting the Council of the Eoyal Society to 

 rights, for the ' Athenaeum ' on the 25th of November contains two 

 anonymous letters from his pen. Here it should be mentioned 

 that he was always adverse to the Eoyal Society curtailing its 

 number of Fellows, whereby he considered the strength of the 

 Society was proportionately reduced. If the Institute of France 

 be taken as an example, then certainly his suppositions relative 

 to the Eoyal Society would give some grounds for apprehension. 

 He was also opposed to the system by which the publication and 

 rejection of learned papers are determined. In speaking of the 

 rejection of a valuable paper by Mr. Spencer, we find in his 

 history of Electro-Metallurgy these remarkable words : - 



It is improper to throw the whole blame of the rejection of that paper 

 upon Dr. Lardner, for this is by no means the only essay of importance 

 which has been consigned to oblivion. The rejection of valuable papers is 

 a fault of the system, not of the man. At all the learned societies a paper 

 submitted to the society is referred to persons to report upon its merits, 

 and upon that report the committees act with regard to its publication 

 or suppression, which, in some cases, is facetiously termed a careful 

 deposition in the archives of the society, which expression literally means, 

 that it is placed in some large box from which it will be excluded from the 

 cheering influence of the sun's rays for ever. The examination into the 

 merits of any particular paper is, however, a most unthankful, disagree- 

 able, and troublesome office. And it is not, therefore, surprising that the 

 referees should sometimes exercise their characters as men, in supporting 

 their own or the opinions of their friends and those to whom they are 

 under obligations, and occasionally forget their situation as judges. Their 

 services being gratuitous, entitle the referees to the heartiest thanks of the 

 public ; but an important office like that they occupy, in which the pros- 

 perity of the whole country is interested, should decidedly not be held 

 without remuneration, and when remunerated the officers should be held 

 responsible for their decisions. One never can tell to what great end a 

 single new fact or application, though in an ill-drawn-up paper, may not 

 ultimately tend.* 



These remarks, it will be seen, are also applicable to other 

 societies. 



Perhaps before this I should have given an account of my 

 father's outward appearance. He was short, not exceeding 5 feet 

 8 inches in height. As a young man he was very slim ; became, 

 however, in the prime of his life corpulent; but the last eight 

 years again became very thin, and indeed emaciated. Although 



* See ' Electro-Metallurgy," p. xix. 



