ago 



NA TURE 



[January 30, 1902 



Charter, and that the nomination of the first Fellows 

 under the proposed charter should be forthwith taken 

 in hand. Before the close of last year, on December 17 

 the lintish Academy held its first meeting at the British 

 Museum and petitioned His Majesty for incorporation 

 by Charter." ^ 



According to the draft Charter, the petitioners will be 

 the first Fellows of the Academy, and the President and 

 Council will be elected by the Fellows from amongst their 

 own number. New Fellows will be elected at a general 

 meeting of the Fellows. 



The announcement in the London Gazette states that 

 H.s Majesty has referred the petition to a committee of 

 the Lords of the Council. Notice is further given that 

 all petitions for or against such grant should be sent to 

 the Privy Council Ofilce on or before February 14 next. 



The following letter from Sir Norman Lockyer appears 

 in the Titnes of yesterday (January 29) :— 



Sir -All students of natural knowledge in this country 

 should agree as to the importance of the step recently 

 takeii to organise certain branches of it, concerning 

 which you have given your readers much information 

 Ihere are, however, some points connected with the 

 movement on which you have not yet touched. Will vou 

 permit ine to refer to them and the conclusion to which 

 they lead i 



The petition to His Majesty for a charter to embrace 

 the organisation of historical, philosophical and philolo- 

 gical sciences was rendered necessary by the action of 

 the council of the Royal Society, who declined to " initiate 

 the establishment of a British Academy " dealina with 

 these subjects. But, in the first instance, the detire of 

 those interested in the movement was that the Royal 

 Society might include in itself a section corresponding to 

 the philosophico-historical and philological division of the 

 Continental academies ; it was not a question of estab- 1 

 lishing a British Academy. | 



.u^°,,™"?''l" '•'^ "''■'"^'' '" "^'= fo™ a committee of ' 

 the Royal Society was appointed, and its report has 1 

 recently been published. In this report we have the ! 

 following reference to the subjects dealt with by the i 

 historical and philological sections of foreign academies :— j 



These subjects have, in England, hitherto remained un- 

 organised -that is to say, the workers in each one of them have 

 been brought into little or no relation with the workers in each \ 

 o( the others Societies have been founded for the promotion 

 ot some of them, but these .societies are not linked topelher bv 

 the membership of their leading members in one body of remi: 

 msedauthority and influence, such as the Royal Society provides 

 lor the investigators of various branches of mathematical, obser- 

 vational, and experimental science. 



The advantages which the gathering into one body of the 

 men most eminent in the subjects above specified have secured 

 in Germany, France, Italy and Belgium do not exist here, and 

 the absence of any ctfort to secure them has often excited the 

 surprise of learned men in those countries. Neither is there in 

 England any series ot Transactions similar to those of the lead 

 ing academies of Continental Europe, in which records of the 

 most fruitful inquiries in those subjects, or even systematised 

 references to such inquiries, may be found. 



We are ne.xt told that the following reasons, among 

 others, have been suggested by eminent men as making 

 it desirable that the Royal Society should take action in 

 the matter : — 



Assuniing the organisation of the above subjects to be called 

 lor m the general interest of the intellectual progress of the 

 couniry, the Royal Society can promote their orgar,isation more 

 effectively than could be done by the persons who are occupied 

 in the study of them, because these persons have no sort of 

 com .,ned corporate existence, and no voluntary gr.,up of them 

 would appear to have a proper lon.s standi lor appealing to the 

 NO. 1683, VOL. 65 J 



oSt Toughr'"'''"^ """ ^°^""""^"< i" "'J<=' to a»ain the 



thi'Roval'wT'' f"" ^'""^' fi™""^^ "''" 'he inclusion by 

 the Royal Society of a section corresponding to the philoso- 

 phico-historical an<l philological divisions of the Oerman acade- 

 mies would strengthen the society by broadening the range of 

 ts scientific activity and increasing its influence ; and woufd be 

 L, tf '"I ^^^ inasmuch as such a course wouM anticipate and 

 taZ^fn'Th "!''"''' 'he formation of an association which, hy 

 gathering the subjects wnhin its scope, might to that exten te 

 m rivalry with the Royal Society, an'd 'tend to narrow the tegitU 

 mate range of its activity. ^ 



And next eomes the most important part of the report 



indicating that in the past, and by the three charters 



granted by His Majesty Charles II., the subjects under 



, discussion were, and should now be, held to refer to 



natural knowledge," and, therefore, should be dealt 



with by the Royal Society : — 



The society exists for the promotion of natural knowledge. 

 The interpretation of the term " natural knowledge," according 

 to the present practice of the Royal Society, assigns to it a ranee 

 from mathematics to the various biological sciences, and this 

 secures the inclusion of the scientific study of man in his 

 biological relations. . . 



It is evident that the charters have never been interpreted as 

 conhning the "studies ■■ of the society to " further promoting by 

 the authority of experiments the science of natural things and 

 of useful arts m the strict modern meaning of those words. 

 Indeed, the second charter in terms empowers the society to 

 hold meetings "for the examination and investigation of e.x- 

 periments and of natural thinqs.' and both charters authorise 'it 

 to enjoy mmual intelligence and affairs with all and all manner 

 ot loreigners . . " in matters or things philosophical, mathe- 

 ma ical, or mechanical." The provisions of the first statutes 

 that the business of the society at its meetings shall be " to 

 order, take account, consider, and discourse of philosophical 

 experiments and observations ; to read, hear, and discourse 

 upon letters, reports, and other papers containing philosophical 

 matters ;_ and also to view and discourse upon rarities of nature 

 and art, and the long and uninterrupted usage to receive papers 

 on observational sciences, such as geology, or on pure mathe- 

 I matics, certainly do establish a coniemporanea expositio which 

 1 must be taken into account as optUnus mterpres and fortissima 

 1 tn lege. ■' 



j Even had papers upon philological, psychological, or other 



i subjects been entirely absent, no stress could be jai<l upon that 



I fact il in the opinion of the society those subjects have, under 



[ modern methods of treatment, become observational sciences, 



and as fully parts of "natural knowledge" as those subjects 



which were recognised as such at the epoch of the foundation of 



the society. 



It would clearly be ultra vires for the society to resolve to 

 receive a new class of papers, incapable of being regarded either 

 in subject-maller or in scientific treatment as in the same cate- 

 gory as those which have hitherto been received. But it would 

 not be unlawful for the .society to determine to receive papers 

 on subjects not hitherto regarded as properly within its scope if 

 It came deliberately to the conclusion that, in view of the 

 scieniific method in which they were now being treated, those 

 subjects ought not to be excluded from its study. 



The committee was not content with expressing its 

 own view on this important matter ; it privately consulted 

 two hifjh legal authorities, whose opinion led the com- 

 mittee to believe, in confirmation of the views above 

 slated, that the inclusion within the scope of the society 

 of such subjects as have been referred to, if treated by 

 scientific methods, is "within the powers of the society." 

 Two extracts from the first charter granted by Charles 

 II. alone seem to establish this conclusion. The charter 

 begins as follows (I give the English translation as it 

 runs in the " Record of the Royal Society, 1S97") :_ 



Charles II by the grace of God King of England, Scotland, 

 France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c., to all to whom 

 these present Letters shall come, greeting. 



We have long ami fully resolved viith Ourself to extend not 

 only the boundaius of the Empire, but also the very arts and 

 sciences. Therefore we look with favour upon all forms of 



