308 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 662 



Society," in a stately octavo, printed from an 

 unusually neat and clear type. While the 

 first charter of the society was granted July 

 15, 1662, some of these papers are of earlier 

 date and a few even belong to the time of 

 King James I. It appears that there was a 

 committee of trades connected with Philo- 

 sophical Society or Assembly, out of which 

 the Royal Society was developed, and some of 

 the more practical papers were contributed 

 to this committee. A few of these, written 

 in 1639, appear in Vol. III.; the documents 

 of still earlier date, in Vol. XXV., may have 

 formed part of the gift made, in 1667, by Mr. 

 H. Howard, of the Arundel Library. 



It seems that the appellation " Royal So- 

 ciety " was first employed by John Evelyn in 

 his translation of a work by Gabriel Naude. 

 This translation, which appeared in 1661, is 

 accompanied by a dedication to Edward, Earl 

 of Clarendon ; in this Evelyn writes : " God 

 has Enlightn'd your great Mind with a Fer- 

 vour so much becoming it in the promoting 

 and encouraging of the Royal Society." 



These guard-books may be properly called 

 " classified papers," since the contents are 

 generally arranged according to subject; the 

 chronological order has also been observed in 

 most cases. The collection comprises original 

 papers and also letters or memorials com- 

 municated either to the society or to its offi- 

 cers or members ; to these are added memoirs 

 and reviews relating to the papers and a few 

 broadsides and prospectuses. A large part of 

 these papers have never been printed, and 

 2,500 have been indexed as to authors' names, 

 of which there are more than 800 ; a few, how- 

 ever, are anonymous. Each volume of the 

 guard-books now contains a table of contents 

 and the names of the authors as far as they 

 are known; as the articles are grouped under 

 different subjects in most of the guard-books, 

 a subject-index is not absolutely necessary. 



It is impossible in this short note to give 

 any adequate idea of the variety and impor- 

 tance of the papers contained in this collec- 

 tion, to the mathematician, physicist, miner- 

 alogist, zoologist, geographer, archeologist, in 

 fact to all scientific workers who are inter- 



ested in the classics of their particular science. 

 One of the most interesting contributions was 

 a sealed paper by the Hon. Robert Boyle on 

 his " Way of makeing the Phosphorus." 

 There are 103 papers by Robert Hook, 66 by 

 Erancis Hauksbee, 84 by Denis Papin and 

 19 by Sir Robert Moray. Among the other 

 noteworthy names we may mention Isaac 

 Borrow, John Hadley, Sir Hans Sloane, Sir 

 Christopher Wren, Sir Isaac Newton, Gior- 

 dano Bruno, Andreas Celsius, J. C. A. Helve- 

 tius, De Maupertuis, G. E. Rumphius, Prince 

 Rupert, Carolus Linnseus, Athanase Kircher, 

 Cotton Mather, D. G. Eahrenheit, etc. 



The guard-books reflect great credit on the 

 thoughtful care and foresight of those who 

 for so great a period have maintained the 

 dignity of the Royal Society and have pre- 

 served, not only the manuscripts of the au- 

 thor, but in many cases the entire correspond- 

 ence on the paper. 



Herewith the index to the twenty-five 

 guard-books : 



Volume. 



I. Arithmetick, Algebra, Geometry, Trig- 

 onometry. 

 II. Surveying, Opticks, Perspective, Sculp- 

 ture, Painting, Musick, Mechanicks. 



III. (1) and (2). Mechanicks, Trades. 



IV. (1) and (2). Physiology, Meteorology, 



Pneumaticks. 

 V. Journals of the Weather. 

 VI. Staticks, Hydrostaticks, Hydraulicks, 



Hydrology. 

 VII. (1) and (2). Architecture, Ship-Build- 

 ing, Geography, Navigation, Voyages, 

 Travels. 

 VIII. (1) and (2). Astronomy. 

 IX. ( 1 ) and ( 2 ) . Mineralogy, Magneticks. 

 X. (1), (2) and (3). Botany and Agricul- 

 ture. 

 XI. ( 1 ) and ( 2 ) . Pharmacy and Chymistry. 

 XII. ( 1 ) and ( 2 ) . Anatomy and Surgery. 



XIII. Monsters ; Longevity. 



XIV. (1) and (2). Physick. 

 XV. (1) and (2). Zoology. 



XVI. Gramar, Chronology, History and An- 

 tiquities. 

 XVII. Miscellaneous Papers. 

 XVIII. (1) and (2). Experiments of Papin, 

 Hauksbee and Desaguliers. 



