250TH ANNIVERSARY 11 



' The career of the Royal Society is fully recorded in its various 

 publications. Its "Philosophical Transactions" and "Proceedings", 

 and likewise the separate works which it has issued, form a chro- 

 nicle from which the successive stages in the progress of modern 

 science can be followed. The enumeration of only a few of the 

 names which appear in these volumes shows that the Society has 

 counted among its Fellows some of the great leaders in all branches 

 of Natural Knowledge. Starting its career with a notable group of 

 physicists and mathematicians, among whom were Robert Boyle and 

 John Wilkins, it ere long welcomed Isaac Newton into its ranks, 

 published his immortal " Principia ", and annually elected him as 

 its President for nearly a quarter of a century. The physical 

 sciences have all along been strongly represented here. It seems 

 but yesterday that James Clerk Maxwell's voice was heard in 

 these rooms and that Stokes and Kelvin sat in the presidential 

 chair. That the succession of leaders is still well maintained, the 

 presence here to-day of Lord Rayleigh, Sir William Crookes, Sir 

 Joseph Thomson, Sir Joseph Larmor, and many others amply 

 proves. Nor have the biological sciences been less prominent in 

 the work of the Society. From the early days of John Ray down to 

 those of Charles Darwin, Hooker, Huxley and Lister, every branch 

 of biology has been illustrated and advanced by our Fellows. 



'As Science knows no restriction of country or language, the 

 Royal Society has from its earliest beginning cultivated friendly 

 relations with fellow workers in research all over the world. The 

 first list of original members includes the honoured name of the 

 physicist and astronomer Huygens, some of whose gifts to us we 

 still possess ; and from that time till now the Society has been 

 proud to inscribe on the roll of its Foreign Members the names of 

 the most illustrious exponents of science in each generation. It 

 has been glad also to recognize distinction by the award of its 

 medals far beyond the bounds of the British Dominions. At the 

 same time the Academies and Universities of other lands have 

 ever shown a generous recognition of the labours of the Fellows 

 of the Royal Society, honouring them by electing them into their 

 membership or by conferring upon them academic degrees. This 

 confraternity of the commonwealth of science reaches to-day the 

 climax of its manifestation in our experience, when we receive 



