HISTORY OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 215 
A CONTRIBUTION TO A HISTORY OF THE ROYAL 
SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALKS, 
(WITH INFORMATION IN REGARD TO OTHER NEW SOUTH 
WALES SOCIETIES.) 
By J. H. MAIDEN, I.S.0., F.R.S., F.L.S., 
One of the Honorary Secretaries. 
[Read before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, July 3, 1918. | 
DURING the year 1905, the Council contemplated the cele- 
bration of the jubilee of the 1856 (1855) Society, but cir- 
cumstances prevented the intention being carried out. I 
undertook to prepare a history of our Society up to 1906, 
but when the celebration was abandoned, I confined:my 
attention to the unravelling of the intricacies of the pedi- 
gree of the Society, and to its proceedings up to the date 
that they had been published in the Society’s Journal for 
1875. 
I have by no means continuously worked at the subject 
since 1906, but have never lost sight of the matter, and 
from time to time have gleaned additional information. I 
now offer my compilation as matériaux pour servir. Detailed 
information has yet to be accumulated between 1823 and 
1850, also during 1853 and 1854 and 1859 to 1861, in the 
files of contemporary newspapers, and notes, and perhaps 
the text of afew papers read before the Societies dealt 
with may be recovered, and printed to complete the record. 
I believe, however, that incomplete as it is, what I have 
got together will be useful to a future worker to enable 
him to prepare a really valuable history of our Society. 
Some of the older writers were inclined to be easy-going 
in quoting the titles of Societies, a circumstance which 
