IXXX PROCEEDINGS OE THE 



"Witli regard to the Transactions themselves, various devices 

 Lave beey. resorted to, by which those of the Members who con- 

 sider themselves as patrons or general cultivators of science could 

 exhibit' the whole on their tables and shelves as one complete 

 work, whilst the labourers in science might select separate por- 

 tions without the appearance of being fragments only. Separate 

 volumes, series, parts of volumes, &c. have been devoted to the 

 principal branches ; or, again, every separate paper, however short, 

 has its separate title and paging, although stitched up into 

 volumes, with a general title ; or a certain number of copies of 

 each paper are printed off with a separate title and paging for the 

 separate sale. In some continental Transactions the separate 

 paging of short papers is carried to such a degree as to entail all 

 the inconveniences of a series of detached pamphlets. The double 

 paging of the separate and continuous copies, on the other hand, 

 produces much confusion in quoting references. The most con- 

 venient course pointed out by experience, seems to be that, in 

 quarto Transactions including a diversity of subjects, the papers 

 should be separable, but that each should bear an indication of 

 the Transactions and volume from which it is taken, retaining at 

 the same time the original paging in all separate issues, whether 

 of authors' copies or for sale. AVe have long printed our own 

 Transactions in such a manner as that the volumes can be broken 

 up into separate memoirs ; and the Council has now determined 

 that authors' and other copies should retain the original paging. 

 The Council have also taken into consideration the means of 

 allowing a separate sale of individual papers. The only difficulty 

 appears to be the very unequal demand there would be for them, 

 thus leaving on our hands a large stock of broken sets. 



A much more important question for our serious consideration 

 is, how we are to retain our position or extend our influence as 

 a Linnean Society for the cultivation of all branches of Biology, 

 to maintain the unity of the science for all general discussions, 

 and at the same time to promote accuracy by the encouragement 

 of the closest study of the minutest details. Some five and thirty 

 years since, a general feeling amongst the younger scientific men, 

 that the old Societies established in previous generations were 

 not keeping pace with the progressive changes of the day, induced 

 the establishment of a number of separate Associations, either as 

 supplementary or in opposition to the old ones, whilst in the latter 

 the majority of the managers, often from a conservative feeling, 

 stimulated by the political discussions of the day, did not see the 



