ADVERTISEMENT. 



The Committee appointed by the Royal Society to direct the publication of the 

 Philosophical Transactions, take this opportunity to acquaint the Public, that it fully 

 appears, as well from the council-books and journals of the Society, as from repeated 

 declarations which have been made in several former Transactions, that the printing 

 of them was always, from time to time, the single act of the respective Secretaries, 

 till the Forty-seventh Volume : the Society, as a Body, never interesting themselves 

 any further in their publication, than by occasionally recommending the revival of 

 them to some of their Secretaries, when, from the particular circumstances of their 

 affairs, the Transactions had happened for any length of time to be intermitted. And 

 this seems principally to have been done with a view to satisfy the Public, that their 

 usual meetings were then continued, for the improvement of knowledge, and benefit 

 of mankind, the great ends of their first institution by the Royal Charters, and which 

 they have ever since steadily pursued. 



But the Society being of late years greatly enlarged, and their communications 

 more numerous, it was thought advisable that a Committee of their members should 

 be appointed, to reconsider the papers read before them, and select out of them such 

 as they should judge most proper for publication in the future Transactions ; which 

 was accordingly done upon the 26th of March 1752. And the grounds of their 

 choice are, and will continue to be, the importance and singularity of the subjects, or 

 the advantageous manner of treating them ; without pretending to answer for the 

 certainty of the facts, or propriety of the reasonings, contained in the several papers 

 so published, which must still rest on the credit or judgement of their respective 

 authors. 



It is likewise necessary on this occasion to remark, that it is an established rule of 

 the Society, to which they will always adhere, never to give their opinion, as a Body, 



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