414 Tkc Royal Society 



formality. This being so, it cannot fail to surprise the 

 newly elected fellow, when he proceeds to justify his elec- 

 tion by doing work and communicating the results of it to 

 the society, to find that he is now in no better position 

 than he was before he was elected. His work is referred 

 in the same way as that of any outsider. His recent selec- 

 tion by the council is ignored by that body or is regarded 

 as having no weight, and it treats him, scientifically, as a 

 perfect stranger. 



Furthermore, this reference, which amounts to neither more 

 nor less than a secret revision of the title of the fellow to the 

 privileges of the society, is repeated on every occasion when 

 he comes under the notice of the society by offering it work. 

 So long as he is content to be a passive fellow, or at least an 

 inactive one, he is spared this injustice and indignity. It is 

 no wonder then that the fellowship of the Royal Society has 

 come to be looked on as an invitation to repose rather than 

 as an incentive to work. 



How different is the state of things which we observe in 

 the parallel society in France, the Academy of Sciences. Its 

 constitution is thoroughly democratic, and all its proceedings 

 are inspired by enlightened self-respect. But we need only 

 contemplate the work which it puts through in the year and 

 compare it with what is turned out by the Royal Society to 

 see that there is something for us to learn by its study. 



First and foremost the academy meets fifty-two times in 

 the year, namely, on every Monday, with the exception of 

 Easter Monday and Whit Monday, and then it meets on the 

 following Tuesdays. By the time-table of the current year 

 the Royal Society is to meet twenty times. 



Papers by members, or communicated by members of the 

 academy, are not obliged to be sent in before the meeting. 

 The agenda of the meeting is compiled at the meeting, each 

 member who has a paper to communicate giving notice of it 

 to the secretary on his arrival in the room, and the papers 

 are taken strictly in the order of their intimation. If the 

 paper communicated by the member is to be published in 

 the Comptes rendus of the sitting, it has to be handed in to 



