1847 Reform in the Royal Society 349 



permitted them to be frequent attendants at the meetings, 

 had much in their power with respect to candidates whom 

 they favoured. A belief indeed is said to have arisen among 

 the men of science on the Continent that with a little 

 trouble almost anybody could obtain the Fellowship of the 

 Royal Society. 



The agitation for reform became so urgent that in 1846 

 the Council appointed a Committee to consider the mode 

 of election of Fellows. The result of the deliberations of 

 this Committee was seen next year in the adoption of a 

 new series of statutes which wrought a revolution in the 

 procedure of the Society in regard to this matter. In the 

 first place, the election of ordinary Fellows by the general 

 body of the Society was fixed to take place only on the 

 first Thursday of June, which was specially set apart for 

 the purpose. Again, ample notice was to be given of the 

 meeting, and a list of the candidates proposed by the Council 

 was to be circulated previously among the Fellows. Further, 

 the number of ordinary candidates to be submitted for 

 election was not to exceed fifteen in each year, and these 

 were to be carefully selected by the Council. 



This salutary change of method, which has remained 

 practically unaltered to the present time, directly affected 

 the Club, by making one of its meetings unnecessary. On 

 the Thursday on which the election of new Fellows took 

 place the general body of the Society for some years dined 

 together in the evening, and the members of the Club 

 naturally gave up their own meeting in order to join that 

 dinner. But a further result of the reform movement 

 soon appeared. If the Royal Society required reformation, 

 the energetic spirits by whom this change was brought about 

 would not improbably think that their new broom might 

 well be applied also to the dining Club. There was gener- 

 ally a waiting list of candidates for admission into this Club, 

 and years might pass before an applicant could become a 

 member. Many of the members had obviously not been 

 chosen for their scientific eminence. The reformers, how- 

 ever, do not appear to have ever attempted to secure any 



