A Note on the History of the Statutes of the Society. 103 



-simply adds to the Statutes of 1663 the two enacted in 1727 and the 

 one enacted in 1730. 



The Election of Council and Officers. 



Ann 1663 in the ori g inal Statutes, Cap. VII, " Of the Election of 

 the Council and Officers " makes arrangements that the 

 eleven members of the existing Council who are to be continued 

 should first be determined, after that the ten new members, and finally 

 the officers. The Statutes of 1752, reproduce the chapter in its original 

 Ann 1735 ^ rm ^ "^ sections, with the addition of Sec. 13, enacted 

 in 1735, which provides that in order to lessen the 

 tediousness of the election, Fellows may give in at the same time 

 three lists (1) of eleven old Members of Council to continue, (2) of 

 ten new Members, (3) of Officers. 



The Philosophical Transactions. 



But the most important changes introduced in 1752, those which 

 probably led to the issue of the new version of the Statutes in that year, 

 AT|TI 1663 relate to the * Philosophical Transactions.' In the old 



Statutes, Cap. XIII, "Of the Printer to the Society," 

 provides for the printing and binding of books, catalogues, and such 

 other things by order of the Society or Council ; there are no other 

 An 1665 P rov ^ s ^ ons as to publications. From time to time the 



Council, acting for the Society, gave the license or 

 imprimatur of the Society to certain books. These were printed by 

 the Society's printer, bat not at the cost of the Society ; nor were 

 they published at the risk of the Society. The cost and risk was 

 undertaken by the printer or by some other person or persons. The 

 treatment of the ' Philosophical Transactions ' was at first somewhat 

 similar. These were begun in 1665, but up to the 46th volume 

 inclusive, published in 1749-50, " the printing of them was always, 

 from time to time, the single act of the respective Secretaries " (Adv. 

 to ' Philosophical Transactions,' vol. 47), though they were licensed 

 by the Council. Thus with regard to the first number the Council 

 (Minutes, March 1, 1664) ordered " that the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions, to be composed by Mr. Oldenburg, be printed the first Munday 

 of every month, if he have sufficient matter for it, and that that Tract 

 be licensed by the Council of the Society, being first reviewed .by some 

 of the Members of the same. And that the President be desired, now 

 to Licence the first papers thereof, being written in four sheets in 

 folio, to be printed by John Marty n and James Allestree." This 

 practice of licensing was, up to 1752, continued with reference to those 

 papers read before the Society which were published in the ' Transac- 

 tions.' 



