CELEBRATION ADDRESSES 111 



ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE, LONDON 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE. The President, Council, and Fellows 

 of the Royal Society of Medicine very heartily congratulate the President, 

 Council, and Fellows of the Royal Society on the completion of two hundred 

 and fifty years spent in the execution of the very important duties with which 

 it is entrusted. A Society which has for its object the improvement of the 

 Art and Science of Medicine in all its branches, towards which improvement 

 the advancement in knowledge in various other Sciences so largely contributes, 

 cannot but take the warmest interest in the continued prosperity and use- 

 fulness of the Royal Society, especially as there were among the original 

 members of that Society several Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians 

 of London, and as moreover several of its Presidents have been Fellows 

 either of that College or of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. In 

 former times when the power of Analysis had outrun the means of obtaining 

 knowledge, natural Philosophy and Metaphysics and the analysis of Sense 

 and the analysis of Thought were hopelessly confused by the attempt to 

 solve them, not through an appeal to facts, but by the help of general 

 theories respecting the nature of the Universe. In the philosophy of 

 Antiquity the meaning of the word 'Science' could scarcely be explained 

 to students, except from the mathematical sciences, which alone offered the 

 type of Universality and Certainty. Geometry was regarded as the pro- 

 paedeutic to philosophy. Somewhat of this view perhaps lingered at the 

 time when those who afterwards gave birth to the Royal Society had 'a 

 designe of founding a Colledge for the promoting of Physico-Mathematicall- 

 Experimentall Learning '. But the Royal Society having arisen out of the 

 'Invisible College 1 of which Boyle the disciple of Francis Bacon (both of 

 imperishable fame) speaks in sundry letters, having been granted a Charter 

 on July 15th, 1662, by Charles II, mathematical pupil of Hobbes, and 

 having adopted as its title the name first applied to it by the celebrated 

 diarist Evelyn directed its inquiries, particularly, to what was then called 

 the ' New Philosophy ' or ' Experimental Philosophy ' ' for the improving of 

 natural knowledge by experiments \ True to its origin and history, the 

 Royal Society still elects Princes of the Blood, and persons selected by the 

 Council from among men distinguished in walks of life other than Science ; 

 whilst by the restrictions made during the presidency of Sir Joseph Banks, 

 and subsequently, the number of Candidates recommended for election has 

 been limited to fifteen annually. Concurrently with this restriction of the 

 Fellowship, Science has grown enormously ; and as a consequence, other 

 Scientific Societies have been established, some under the auspices of several 

 Fellows of the Royal Society and by Royal Charter, some independently of 

 either of these advantages, but all active in the promotion of special branches 



