liDWEAJSr SOCIETY 01" LONDON. IxXV 



tinct. Papers on our sciences are also dispersed tbroiigli the 

 voluminous Philosopliical Transactions of the Eoyal Society, as 

 well as through those of the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh, of the 

 Cambridge Philosophical Society, and of numerous provincial 

 Societies. "We have had several Zoological and Botanical Journals, 

 now discontinued, amongst which the most important were the 

 several series of Journals of Botany edited by the late Sir William 

 J. Hooker. The most important now publishing are the Annals 

 of Natural History, the Ibis, the Zoologist, and Seemann's Journal 

 of Botany, devoted exclusively to our sciences, besides occasional 

 original papers in the Natural History Eeview, the Quarterly 

 Journal of Science, and other periodicals which include general 

 science. And although not strictly a Journal, I may mention 

 incidentally as a proof of the comparative stability of our insti- 

 tutions, that the Boranical Magazine has now regularly appeared 

 on the 1st of every month through an unbroken series of eighty- 

 three years — a circumstance I believe wholly unparalleled in the 

 case of any periodical, scientific or literary, on the Continent, 

 where not only have political convulsions frequently disorganized 

 every scientific institution, but where, in the most tranquil times, 

 scientific Transactions and Journals are always falling in arrear 

 of their regular issue. 



In reviewing the various modes of publication tried, adopted, 

 abandoned, or resumed by diflierent scientific bodies, we see that 

 the changes made have generally been governed by the desire to 

 reconcile antagonizing rules, each of which has its advantages and 

 inconveniences. Concentration of subjects for patrons and others, 

 who only take a general interest in science or in the Society culti- 

 vating it, separation for those who devote themselves to the close 

 investigation of special branches — the bulky quarto, with expen- 

 sive plates indispensable for the complete illustration of a great 

 number of subjects, or the compact octavo, more suited to the 

 light purses of most naturalists, and more convenient for refer- 

 ence to all — an immediate call on the part of the members and 

 supporters of a scientific body for ephemeral reports of the pro- 

 ceedings of each meeting, and the demands of science in general 

 for a permanent record of the results of their labours, are objects 

 all of which have been aimed" at by most publishing associations. 

 When first the inhabitants of a town or district begin to turn 

 their attention from the ordinary business of life to science, lite- 



