126 Record of the Royal Society. 



to the Society. It was then found that the conditions of the will 

 were so stringent, arid involved so much expense, that it was 

 practically impossible to fulfil them, even when the rate of interest 

 on Consols was 3 per cent.' instead of, as at present, 2J, or, as it 

 will be shortly, 2| per cent., and there being a further provision 

 that in case of failure on the part of the Society to fulfil the inten- 

 tions of the testator, the income of the fund should be paid over to 

 the Governors of the Foundling Hospital, that institution has in 

 each year received the interest accruing from the fund. The subject 

 has on several occasions been brought before the Council, and also 

 before the legal advisers of the Society, but as yet no way out of the 

 difficulty has been discovered. 



No. 7. THE CEOONIAN LECTURE FUND. 



This is one of the earliest institutions connected with the Society, 

 and, in name at least, carries us back to the days of its foundation. 

 At the meeting held on November 28, 1660, when the design for 

 founding the Society was discussed, Mr. Croone, though absent, was 

 nominated as the Register, or as we should now call it Registrar, 

 of the small band of learned men who met weekly at Gresham 

 College. Dr. Croone, as he subsequently became, was from the 

 beginning an active Fellow of the Society, and on his death, in 1684. 

 left a scheme for two lectureships which he intended to found, one of 

 which was for the Royal Society. In his will, however, he made no 

 provision for this purpose, but his widow, who subsequently became 

 Lady Sadleir, remedied the omission, and in her will, dated Septem- 

 ber 25, 1701, bequeathed to the Society one-fifth of the clear rent of 

 the King's Head Tavern, in or near Old Fish Street, London, at the 

 corner of Lambeth Hill, " for the support of a lecture and illustrative 

 experiment for the advancement of natural knowledge on local 

 motion, or (conditionally) on such other subject as, in the opinion of 

 the President for the time being, should be most useful in promoting 

 the objects for which the Royal Society was instituted," the 

 remainder being paid to the Royal College of Physicians, also for the 

 support of a lecture to be delivered before them ; a decree in 

 Chancery, in 1728, empowered the Society to devote the whole 

 nett annual Drofits of the legacy to the payment for a single lecture 

 and its attendant expenses. The proper subject for the lecture is the 

 nature or laws of muscular motion, to be accompanied by some 

 anatomical demonstration. The first Croonian Lecture was delivered 

 in 1738 by Dr. Stuart, the subject being " The Motion of the Heart." 

 From 1786 to 1885 the property was let for 15 per annum, so that 

 the share of the Society was only about 3, but since 1885 the 

 rent of the estate has been materially increased, and the Society now 



