Foundation and Early History. 13 



As has been shown above, the Society, at and before its incorpora- 

 tion, held its meetings at Gresham College. After June 28, 1665, 

 the meetings were for a while discontinued, on account of the plague, 

 and the seventh and eighth numbers of the ' Philosophical Trans- 

 actions ' were printed at Oxford. On March 14, 16656, the meetings 

 were resumed at Gresham College, but in September of the same 

 year the Great Fire in London again interrupted them. The meetings 

 due on September 5 and 12 were not held, and though the Society 

 seems to have met on September 19 and some following weeks 

 at Dr. Pope's lodging, or in other rooms in Gresham College, it left 

 the College, which, on account of the fire, was much occupied by 

 merchants, and in January 9, 1666-7, met at Arundel House, in the 

 Strand, originally the Bishop of Bath's Palace, at the site now occu- 

 pied by Arundel and Norfolk Street ; here rooms had been placed at 

 the disposal of the Society by Mr. Henry Howard. 



At Arundel House the meetings continued to be held regularly, 

 with an interruption from May to October, 1667, caused by the 

 arrest and detention in the Tower, on suspicion of treasonable prac- 

 tices, of Henry Oldenburg, one of the secretaries, until December, 

 1673, when the Society once more returned to Gresham College, 

 though for some little time the meetings appear to have been occa- 

 sionally held at Arundel House. 



Under the presidency of Isaac Newton, an anxiety that the Society 

 should possess a house of its own became very marked, and in 1710 

 a house in Crane Court, in Fleet Street, having been purchased on 

 borrowed money, the Society met there on November 8. 



Here they continued for the greater part of the century, indeed 

 until November 30, 1780, when, Sir Joseph Banks being president, 

 they took possession of rooms in Somerset House, which had been 

 placed at their disposal by the Government. 



The Society remained in Somerset House until 1857. In that year 

 the apartments were required for Government offices, and the Society 

 was temporarily transferred to that part of Burlington House which 

 is now occupied by the offices of the Royal Academy of Arts. The 

 new wings and the gateway were subsequently added, and in 1873 

 the Society took up its permanent quarters in the east wing, which 

 it still occupies. 



The second Charter gave the President, Council, and Fellows the 

 same right " to demand and receive the bodies of executed criminals, 

 and to anatomize them as the College of Physicians, and the Company 

 of Surgeons of London use or enjoy." On January 20, 1663-4, at a 

 meeting of the Council, " The general and particular Warrants to 

 demand Bodies for dissection, drawn up by S r Anthony Morgan 

 were read and approved." The original copy of this general Warrant, 

 signed by Lord Brouncker, is preserved in the Archives of the Society. 



