November iS, 1909 



NA TURE 



Robert Moray, Secretary to the I'rivy Council in Scotland, 

 and William 'Aerskine (lirskinej, a son of the Earl of Mar, 

 one of the cupbearers to King Charles. They had been 

 his companions in exile, and after the Restoration they 

 were attached to his court and person. Moray had scien- 

 tific tastes and pursuits, which led to his election as presi- 

 dent of a society for the promotion of physico-mathematical 

 experimental learning, which met in Gresham College, 

 l.oncion, 1661-2. This society becaine, on the receipt of 

 a Royal charter in July, 1662, the Royal Society of 

 London, under the presidency of William, Viscount 

 Brouncker. Moray had without doubt been the King's 

 adviser in the granting of the charter, .■\bout a century 

 later James Douglas, Earl of Morton, a mathematician 

 and astronomer, a friend of Colin Maclaurin, and a former 

 president of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, was 

 in 1764 elected president of the Royal Society of London. 

 Eight years later Sir John Pringle, of the family of 

 Stichel, was made president. lie had graduated as ALD. 

 at Leyden in 1730, and settled in Edinburgh, where he held 

 the chair of moral philosophy in the University from 

 1734 to 1742. He then joined the army as a surgeon, 

 ultimately becam« Physician-General to His Majesty's 

 forces, wrote a famous book on " Diseases of the Army," 

 resided in London, ;.nd in 1772 was appointed president. 

 After a long interval Lord Kelvin occupied the chair, 

 1890-5, and last year Sir .Archibald Geikie was made 

 president. Although not of Scottish birth or parentage, 

 Scotland may claim to have participated in the training 

 of Sir J. Dalton Hooker, president 1873-S, who was 

 educated at the High School and University of Glasgow' 

 during his father's tenure of the regius chair of botany 

 in the University ; also of Lord Listei-, president 1895- 

 icioo, who carried out his far-reaching researches when 

 he held the chair of systematic surgery in the University 

 of Glasgow, and subsequently that of clinical surgery in 

 the University of Edinburgh.) 



It does not appear that any of the communications made 

 to the society in its early years were immediately pub- 

 lished, as the troubles which arose in connection with the 

 Jacobite rising in 1745, and the death of Maclaurin in the 

 following year, suspended for a time its work. Proposals 

 had been, however, made to the Medical Society to form 

 along with it a conjoined society, which should carry its 

 disquisitions into other parts of nature than those which 

 immediately related to medicine, on the understanding that 

 theology, morals, and politics were to be excluded. The 

 larger society formed by this combination became the 

 Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, and it published 

 between 1754 and 1771 three volumes of " Essays and 

 Observations, Physical and Literary," which had been 

 read before the society, the last two of which appeared 

 when David Hunle and Monro secundus were secretaries. 

 The " Essays " embraced a wide range of subjects, mathe- 

 matical, physical, anatomical, botanical, medical, and 

 surgical. 'Vol. i. is of interest in containing two papers 

 by Alex. Monro, jun., afterwards secunius, then a student 

 of medicine; and in vol. iii. a letter to David Hume is 

 printed, dated 17(12, in which Benjamin Franklin described 

 his method of securing houses from the effects of lightning. 

 To quote the words of Principal Forbes, the Philosophical 

 Society of Edinburgh was the immediate parent of the 

 Royal Society. As the Philosophical Society was a volun- 

 tary association, liable to be interrupted in its work, or 

 even to be dissolved, it was considered advisable that an 

 attempt should be made to form a society on a more 

 permanent basis. A meeting of the professors of the 

 University, many of whom weue likewise members of the 

 Philosophical Society, was called in 1782, when Principal 

 Robertson proposed a scheme " for the establishment of a 

 new society on a more extended plan, and after the model 

 of some of the foreign academies, which have for their 

 object the cultivation of every branch of science, erudi- 

 tion, and taste." As in the formation of the Royal Societv 

 of London, the patronage of the King had been solicited, 

 and a charter of incorporation by the Crown obtained ; a 

 similar course in this instance was proposed and agreed 

 to, and in March, 1783, King George ITL granted a 

 charter under the name of the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh. 



The charter provided " ut Societas Literaria Edinburgi 

 institueretur, ad Statum illius partis Imperii nostri quae 

 NO. 20gO, VOL. 82] 



Scotia vocatur accommodata," from which it is obvious 

 that its scope was not limited to the city after which it 

 was named, and in which it had its seat, any more than 

 the corresponding Royal Society in the southern division 

 of the kingdom was exclusively a society for London itself. 

 The charter defined the range of study and research to be 

 included in the work of the society, and specifically named 

 along with the sciences of mathematics, physics, chemistry, 

 and natural history, also arch^eologj', philology, and litera- 

 ture. 



The first meeting of the society was held on June 23, 

 X783, in the University library, with Principal Robertson 

 in the chair, when it was resolved that all the members- 

 of the Philosophical Society should be assumed as members 

 of the Royal Society, and that the judges of the Supreme 

 Court and a number of other gentlemen should be invited 

 to join it. The society in its first year had as president 

 Henry, third Duke of Bucclcuch, and numbered 102 resi- 

 dent and 71 non-resident members. It is interesting to 

 note that the Senatus of the University of St. Andrews 

 was represented by ten members. King's and Marischal's 

 Colleges, Aberdeen, by sixteen, whilst fifteen members of 

 the Senatus of the University of Glasgow were original 

 fellows, so that its national character was emphasisedf 

 from its foundation. 



The fellows were divided into two classes, physical and 

 literary, and a short time after the foundation of the 

 society" the physical class numbered loi, whilst the literary 

 class contained 114 fellows. In the first four volumes of 

 the Transactions of the Royal Society, from 1783 to 1797, 

 the papers were grouped into two classes. In vol. i. 

 twelve physical papers were published and eight literary ; 

 in vol. iv! thirteen physical papers and only two literary. 

 It became obvious, therefore, at an early date that the 

 physical or scientific work of the society would dominate 

 the literary. In vol. v. (1805) it was not thought necessary 

 to divide the published memoirs into these groups, and 

 two papers on literary subjects and two biographies were 

 printed without being classified apart from those relating' 

 to science. In the course of time communications on 

 literary subjects became so few in number that they formed 

 only a small part of the work of the society. 



The society commenced to publish its Transactions in 

 1788, and up to the present date forty-six quarto volumes 

 have appeared. Vols. i. to v. contained chapters entitled 

 " History of the Society," which included its Proceedings 

 from 1783 to 1805. The pubUcation of the Proceedings 

 was then suspended for nearly thirty years, but in 

 December, 1832, the society began to issue the Proceed- 

 ings independently, from which date to May, 1844, they 

 were collected, and published in 1845 in an octavo volume, 

 to be followed by twenty-five similar volumes up to 1907, 

 when they were enlarged to a super-royal octavo. 



The scheme for the encouragement of research, recently 

 inaugurated by the Carnegie trustees, by the institution 

 of fellowships and scholarships, has made a provision to- 

 aid in the maintenance of men of science of the younger 

 generation during their years of probation. The conferring 

 of grants of money to meet the expenses of research and 

 publication has rendered valuable assistance to scientific 

 and other investigators, and has enabled our society to 

 provide more complete and finished illustrations to some of 

 the memoirs than would otherwise have been possible. 



Those of us who commenced scientific work fifty or 

 more years ago cannot but recognise the enormous advance 

 which has been effected in recent years in providing means 

 and facilities for exact inquiry. Natural objects were pre- 

 sent and visible to us and to our predecessors then as now. 

 But the present methods of study are more exact, _ and 

 opportunities for its pursuit are more easily obtained : 

 instruments of research have become more powerful and 

 more capable of assisting in penetrating deepeij into the 

 secrets of nature ; novel phenomena have been disclosed to 

 view and call for interpretation by men of science. The 

 field of research is far from being barren and exhausted, 

 for it is, and will continue to be, capable of producing" 

 ever-ripening fruit. It will be for the younger fellows 

 and for those who may succeed them to bear their share 

 in the extension of natural knowledge, to undertake the 

 responsibility of continuing the work of the society, and 

 to preserve the place which it has gained in the forefront 

 of kindred institutions. 



