THE LIBRARY 



bequests, among which may be mentioned, beside* the books bequeathed by 

 George Ent already referred to, a bequest of books by Francis Aston, taJt&, 

 in 1715, a valuable collection of books and tracts bearing on the history of 

 science presented by Henry Dircks, C.E., in 1865, and a bequ.M. by the late 

 Mr. H. B. Brady, F.R.S., of his library of lxx>ks on the Protozoa, accompanied 

 by a continuation fund. The scientific books in the Library now number 

 nearly 100,000 volumes. In making additions especial attention has for many 

 years past been paid to scientific serials, and the collection of Journals and of 

 the Transactions of Academies and Societies is now a very large one. A 

 Catalogue of the Scientific Books, in two parts, was issued in 1881-3, Part I 

 containing the Serial Literature and Part II being the general Catalogue of 

 separate works, exclusive of Serials. A new Catalogue of the Serials is now 

 passing through the press. 



Regulations for the use of the Library are laid down by Standing Orders of 

 Council, and are printed in the Year Book. Under these regulations, books 

 out on loan are called in by order of Council once a year, at the beginning 

 of the long Vacation ; and during the month of August no book is allowed to 

 leave the house. 



Besides the Library of printed books the Society possesses a rich collection 

 of early scientific correspondence, official records, and other manuscripts. 

 These include the original MS., with Newton's corrections, from which the 

 first edition of the * Principia ' was printed, the MS. volume of the ' Commercium 

 Epistolicum ' relating to the Leibnitz- Newton controversy on the invention of 

 the method of fluxions ; the MS. of John Aubrey's ' Memoires of Naturall 

 Remarques in the County of Wilts', written in 1685 ; a collection of over 300 

 Dutch letters by Leeuwenhoek ; a collection of letters and the MSS. of four 

 works by Malpighi, with original drawings ; a collection of letters by Henry 

 Oldenburg, the first Secretary, and Dr. J. Beale written to Robert Boyle, 

 Oldenburg's commonplace book containing drafts of his letters to Milton and 

 to Boyle, the autograph MS. of Wallis's 'Treatise on Logic', published in 

 the folio edition of his works, a large collection of Newtoniana in six great 

 volumes presented by the Rev. Chas. Turnor, an album of letters of 

 Priestley with portraits and other memorials collected by James Yates, F.R.S., 

 and another in two volumes relating to John Canton, F.R.S., and his corre- 

 spondents. 



The manuscripts and the MS. letters are catalogued in the ' Catalogues of 

 Miscellaneous Manuscripts ', compiled by J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, F.R.S., in 

 1839, and W. E. Shuckard in 1840, respectively. Among series not there 

 catalogued are the ' Letter-Books ', containing copies of the early scientific 

 correspondence from the beginning of the Society to the end of the seventeenth 

 century ; the ' Register Book ' containing copies of scientific memoirs commu- 

 nicated to the Society; and a series of nineteen volumes containing the 

 Certificates of Candidature in which the qualifications of candidates are stated, 



