REPORT OF THE COUNCIL 543 



A part of the Society's Transactions (Vol. III., New Series, 

 part i) was issued in the autumn, and the succeeding part is 

 now nearly ready for publication. The largest contribution 

 to this forthcoming issue will be the highly authoritative 

 catalogue of the Crustacea of Northumberland and Durham, 

 which has been prepared by Canon Norman and Dr. G. S. 

 Brady. In regard to the acceptance or refusal of papers 

 offered for the Transactions your Council have several times 

 been placed in a difficult position, and have been obliged, to 

 their great regret, to refuse one or two papers embodying 

 good original work on local natural history. The authors of 

 these particular papers were, however, not members of the 

 Society. Your Council's difficulties in this matter will be 

 understood when it is explained that the balance shown in the 

 Publication Fund is in reality already exhausted ; more than 

 half of it has been paid out since the close of the financial 

 year in settlement of a printer's account, and the remainder 

 will scarcely meet the cost of the portion of the current 

 Transactions already in type but not yet charged for. 



The publication of scientific work is always a costly 

 matter ; it is for this very reason, in fact, that it is regarded 

 as so important a function of societies like our own. It is a 

 necessity for the advanced worker, but he is very rarely in a 

 position to bear the cost of it himself. Hence learned societies 

 as a rule are very largely publishing bodies, making it their 

 chief concern to give to the world the results of the original 

 work done by their members. It was in this way that our 

 own Society's reputation was built up, and this is the main 

 foundation on which its reputation in the scientific world still 

 rests. In spite, then, of the difficulties to which it gives rise, 

 the abundance of good material offered by the members for 

 publication is a gratifying feature in the present position of 

 the Society. And whilst the Society still has the honour 

 of publishing work by distinguished naturalists, like Canon 

 Norman and Dr. Brady, who were associated with the cele- 

 brated men of its earlier days, recent volumes of the Trans- 

 actions give pleasing evidence that its membership includes 



