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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. Ko. 985 



Royal Society on January 11, 1671, and 

 subsequently its president for the long 

 period of twenty-four years. A month 

 following his election, Newton communi- 

 cated to the Society his discovery of the 

 composite nature of white light, which, 

 when published in the PhilosopJiical Trans- 

 actions, was the first of his productions to 

 appear in print. In expressing his thanks 

 to the Society, Newton remarked :^^ 



It was an esteem of the Eoyal Society for most 

 candid and able judges in philosophical matters, 

 that encouraged me to present them with that dis- 

 course of light and colors, which since they have 

 so favorably accepted of, I do earnestly desire you 

 to return them my most cordial thanks. I before 

 thought it a great favor to be made a member of 

 that honorable body, but I am now more sensible 

 of the advantage: for believe me. Sir, I not only 

 .esteem it a duty to concur with them in the promo- 

 tion of real knowledge, but a great privilege, 

 that, instead of exposing discourses to a preju- 

 diced and censorious multitude (by which means 

 many truths have been baflBed and lost), I may, 

 with freedom, apply myself to so judicious and 

 impartial an assembly. 



Leuwenhoeck, "the father of microscop- 

 ical discoveries, " who communicated no less 

 than 375 papers and letters to the Society 

 during a period of fifty years, bequeathed 

 a collection of microscopes "as a mark of 

 my gratitude, and acknowledgment of the 

 great honor which I have received from the 

 Royal Society."^' 



"When the Royal Observatory was estab- 

 lished at Greenwich, the government failed 

 for a period of nearly fifteen years to fur- 

 nish it with a single instrument. In this 

 extremity Flamsteed appealed to the Royal 

 Society, with the following result recorded 

 in the minutes : 



36 Weld, ' ' History of the Eoyal Society, ' ' Vol. 

 , I., p. 237. Brewster 's ' ' Life of Newton ' ' gives 



an interesting account of Newton 's relations with 

 the Eoyal Society and his plan for its improve- 

 .ment (Vol. I., p. 102). 



37 Weld, ibid., p. 245. 



It was ordered that the astronomical instru- 

 ments belonging to the Society be lent to the 

 Observatory at Greenwich, and that Mr. Hooke's 

 new quadrant be forthwith finished at the charges 

 of the Society.3S 



Examples of this nature might be 

 multiplied indefinitely, but a single case 

 will suffice, since no more striking instance 

 of the splendid results directly due to the 

 encouragement and aid of the Royal So- 

 ciety could be asked than that illustrated 

 in the life and work of Sir William Hug- 

 gins, one of the founders of astrophysics, 

 and a typical example of the English 

 "amateur" investigator.^^ Sir William, to 

 whose addresses as president of the Royal 

 Society we shall have occasion to refer 

 later, was not a university man. With his 

 accomplished wife as his only assistant, 

 he lived and did all his work at Upper 

 Tulse Hill, well removed from the bustle of 

 Piccadilly on the Surrey side of the 

 Thames. It is more than probable that 

 without the stimulus and aid of the Royal 

 Society much of his great work could not 

 have been done. For it was on returning 

 home from a Royal Society meeting in com- 

 pany with his friend Miller that he first 

 conceived the idea of observing the spectra 

 of stars, and it was with telescopes and 

 other instruments loaned to him by the So- 

 ciety that his classic observations were 

 made. In spite of fogs and cloiids of Lon- 

 don smoke, he continued his work up to the 

 very end of his long life, dividing his al- 

 legiance to science only between his astro- 

 physical investigations and the develop- 

 ment of the Royal Society, of which he was 

 for forty years a leading Fellow. 



Thus, in spite of that early poverty which 

 prevented the Royal Society from publish- 



33 Weld, ihid., p. 255. 



39 It is hardly necessary to say that the term 

 "amateur" is used here to denote one who works 

 in science for the pure love of the subject, and 

 not in the sense of dilettante. 



