90 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 4. 



members of the Society "will become more 

 and more accustomed to present their orig- 

 inal papers for reading at the meeting, be- 

 fore publication. It may perhaps also be 

 expected that a closer connection may be 

 developed between the reading and the pub- 

 lication of such papers, whereby, on the 

 one hand, perhaps, editors of journals may, 

 as members of the Council or otherwise, 

 have some preliminary oversight of the 

 acceptance of paj)ers for reading, and 

 whereby, on the other hand, the accept- 

 ance of a paper for reading shall insure its 

 speedy publication. 



While the Society can thus do little di- 

 rectly to encourage the writing of important 

 treatises, it can and should, without doubt, 

 do much to stimulate original research. 

 Original discovery has always been recog- 

 nized as the quickest and surest road to dis- 

 tinction. A permanently valuable paper 

 read and discussed at a meeting of the So- 

 ciety becomes an immediate object of inter- 

 est to those who attend; the subsequent 

 record of the reading in the Bulletin, sup- 

 plemented, perhaps, by a brief abstract, 

 excites a still wider interest among the 

 membership at large; and in this way many 

 of the readers are prepared to welcome the 

 publication of the paper when it appears. 

 There are — apart from the institutioii of 

 medals or prizes, which would be within the 

 Societj''s province — many other ways in 

 which, directly or indirectly, the influence 

 of the Society va&j be felt in turning the at- 

 tention of individuals to the importance of 

 original work. And as some slight contri- 

 bution towards this desirable end, I shall 

 close this address with a few remarks and 

 suggestions intended more particularly to 

 reach those members of the Society whose 

 attention is turning in this direction, but 

 who have not as yet produced original 

 papers. If in doing so I happen to give 

 good advice, particularly as regards style, 

 of which I have not always succeeded in 



following myself, I trust I may be iavored 

 with the same kindly personal considera- 

 tion as is customarily accorded to an ema- 

 ciated physician or to a stammering profes- 

 sor of rhetoric. Yet as to the style in 

 which a mathematical paper should be 

 wi-itten, as distinguished from good Eng- 

 lish style in general, there is not really 

 very much to be said. Such papers should 

 contain good English, and enough of it. 

 Obscuritj', above all things, should be 

 avoided. The printer should not be an- 

 noyed unnecessai'ily \>y complicated frac- 

 tions and other things difficult to print. 

 Phrases and symbols familiar to the writer ,^ 

 but not necessarily familiar to his readers, 

 should not be introduced without explana- 

 tion. Such phrases and sjinbols can al- 

 ways be explained by taking the time and 

 trouble ; and though the paper be made 

 somewhat longer, it becomes far more satis- 

 factory. It is of course possible, especi- 

 ally if one has not much to say, to err 

 in the opposite direction hy diffuseness 

 and verbosity. The golden mean lies in 

 the distinct explaining of every symbol, 

 of every phrase not universally under- 

 stood, and of every step in the discus- 

 sion in language otherwise extremely con- 

 cise. 



It would doubtless excite a smile were it 

 known that anjr young man was for the first 

 time saying to himself : " Go to ! let me make 

 a discovery." Yet that is what each one 

 implicitly does say to himself who makes 

 any discovery. It is hard to imagine how 

 any new point could occur fortuitously to 

 an investigator not engaged in investigat- 

 ing. ISTo one can tell until he tries whether 

 or not he is fitted for that sort of work. No 

 one can be sure, even though failure come 

 to him after failure, that he shall not later 

 meet with success. One sort of iailure, in- 

 deed, should convey the most flattering en- 

 couragement. It is when a supposed dis- 

 covery is made, which pi'oves on further in- 



