1881.] 



President's Address. 



43 



and also the observations, reports, and accounts of surveys which are 

 to be found in our library. As our Library Committee has always 

 devoted great attention to securing by exchange or by purchase 

 publications of this class, and as the main strength of our library 

 consequently lies in our collection of them, the part in question will 

 form the most important section of the entire catalogue. 



Progress has also been made in the more voluminous portion of the 

 catalogue, viz., that of the general collection of scientific books, of 

 which thirteen sheets, extending to the letter C, are printed off, or are 

 in type. It may fairly be hoped that before our next anniversary the 

 whole will be published. 



The last part of the Philosophical Transactions for 1880 was pub- 

 lished in March of the present year, completing a volume of nearly 

 1,100 pages, with upwards of fifty plates. Of the Transactions for 

 1881, Parts I and II have already appeared ; from which an early 

 publication of Part III may be anticipated. 



Of the Proceedings, vol. 31 was published in June, and vol. 32 

 at the end of October. 



Although, as I remarked last year, we are more concerned with 

 the quality than with the quantity of the communications made to 

 the Society, it may still be interesting to carry on the table of the 

 number of papers presented per annum to a tenth year. It stands as 

 follows : — 



1872 

 1873 

 1874 

 1875 

 1876 

 1877 

 1878 

 1879 

 1880 

 1881 



These 127 papers include one from Mr. Brooks of Baltimore, 

 two from Professor Helmholtz, and one from Captain Mannheim, 

 of the Ecole Polytechnique, Paris. On reference to the papers them- 

 selves it will be noticed that several prominent men are carrying on 

 with vigour the series of researches on which they hava been, in some 

 cases for years, engaged. Among them there may be mentioned, in 

 physics, those of Professors Liveing and Dewar, and of Mr. Lockyer, 

 on the Spectra of Terrestrial Substances and of the Sun; those of Pro- 

 fessor Hughes on minute Interactions of Electric Currents and Mag- 

 netism; those of Mr. Crookes on High Vacua; and those of Mr. H. 

 Tomlinson on the effect of Stress and Strain on the action of Physical 



99 papers received. 



92 



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98 



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JJ 



88 



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113 



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97 



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110 



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55 



118 



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55 



123 



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55 



127 



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