CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 785 



But the tax thus laid on students of scientific literature is not the only draw- 

 back or danger due to the activities of such small, local, non-specialised societies. 

 They often possess collections of natural-history specimens or of physical 

 instruments for which they become, by mere possession, trustees to the whole 

 scientific world. As in the case of published literature; the circumstance that 

 these things are often unknown to the rest of the world, or are almost inacces- 

 sible to the student, is only one, and not the most serious, danger; for one 

 knows instances of collections suffering from neglect, or. still worse, suffering 

 from the activities of some member who temporarily dominates the governing 

 body, and entertains strong views as to the cost of maintaining collections that, 

 from his special point of view, are of no value. 



Before proposing, in the name of Organisation, to abolish such unspecialised 

 societies, or before hinting that they have outlived their times^ or before even 

 suggesting that they might now be allowed to die a natural and respectable 

 death, one should exert one's ingenuity to devise some scheme for turning them 

 to account. They inherit traditions in most cases that only an unregenerate 

 iconoclast would despise; most of them were founded when science was barely 

 specialised, and when facilities for attending London meetings were imperfect; 

 many of them have published memoirs that are now of classical value, and they 

 have included among their active members the most worthy names in the hi.story 

 of science ; most of them possess libraries that could not now be purchased for 

 money, although these are often neglected, and, for financial reasons, often 

 difficult to iise. 



Even as monuments, therefore, societies such as those that I have mentioned 

 deserve preservation. How, then, can one turn their resources to good account, 

 and organise their culture without the drawbacks of Kiilturl 



The plan that has often occurred to me as a possible compromise between 

 the claims of central organisation and of provincial autonomy is this. The 

 recognised chief among such societies — the Royal S'ociety of London — should, 

 by affiliation of its provincial poor relations, take over the cost, as well as the 

 responsibility, of their serious publications. They would enjoy home rule so 

 far as their meetings, discussions, finances, and libraries are concerned ; but the 

 papers offered for publication would be censored, in the usual waj', by the 

 appropriate sectional committees of the Royal Society; and, if passed, would 

 be published, either in the Proceec^nc/s or Trnnsactlons of the Royal or of 

 some metropolitan specialised society. Such papers would then rank technically, 

 not by mere courtesy^ as ' publications ' for purposes of quotation or priority. 

 The local interest in science would not then be curtailed, and the geographical 

 handicap, especially of junior provincial workers, would be removed ; while the 

 provincial scientific communities would be able to maintain their treasured 

 monuments, without, as now, a constant fear of financial difficulties, and with- 

 out a recurring dread that senility in the respected old 'lit. and phil.' will 

 soon end in the way of all things living. 



So far as our local example is concerned, many, if not most, of the papers 

 which I have just classified by the British Association system might well have 

 been accepted by the Royal Society; for the majority of the papers published 

 in its Proceedings are also by non-members. The last six volumes of the 

 Proceedings of the Poyal Society contain papers by 384 authors, of whom only 

 141 are fellows of the Society. 



I am quite aware of many difficulties in the way of this proposal : fears, on 

 the one side, that the Council of the Royal Society will acquire a dangerous 

 power of controlling the freedom of the scientific writer; and forebodings, on 

 the other, that the duties of the Council threaten to become ' heavy burdens 

 and grievous to be borne ' ; while the cost of such additional publications will 

 be removed from the local body to be thrust upon the Royal Society. 



With regard to these objections, the circumstance that a young worker's 

 paper has been hall-marked by the Royal Society will soon be regarded as fair 

 compensation for what ^vould, after all, be but partial loss of freedom; for the 

 local societies, as well as the various journals, can still publish what they like, 

 though the foreign student may not be blamed for neglecting any but technically 

 published scientific literature. 



The extra burdens added to the Council and Sectional Committees of the 



1915. 3 E 



