1909.] Anniversary Address hy Sir A. Geikie. 155 



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occasion to offer a brief outline of the various directions in whicli the 

 energies of the Society are employed, in the hope that when some of the 

 difficulties which confront us become more widely known, means may be 

 found for adequately coping with them. 



Ever since its foundation nearly two centuries and a half ago, the main 

 occupation of the Eoyal Society has been the holding of meetings for the 

 reading and discussion of contributions to natural knowledge, and the 

 publication of these papers, or abstracts of them, in our printed records. 

 The ' Philosophical Transactions,' dating back to the Society's infancy, form 

 a series of volumes of which we may well be proud, for it is a chronicle 

 not merely of the doings of the Society, but of the onward march of science 

 in every branch of its domain. In the course of time, however, the 

 conditions in which the progress of investigation and discovery advances 

 have greatly changed. When the Eoyal Society was founded it was the 

 only learned body in this country specially devoted to the prosecution of 

 scientific enquiry, and such it continued to be for generations. But the 

 rapid growth of science during the last century has shown that no single 

 Society can now serve to supply the needs of the whole vast field of 

 investigation in every department of nature. Most of these departments, 

 one after the other, have had special societies created for their exclusive 

 cultivation, each of which records the progress of research in its own 

 territory. At first the Ko3'al Society, long accustomed to reign with 

 undisputed sway over the whole realm of natural knowledge, was disposed 

 to look with disfavour on this multiplication of separate and independent 

 institutions. But that time has long since passed away. Subdivision is 

 now admitted to be necessary and, if properly directed, even desirable. 

 Hence this Society, like a proud parent, now rejoices in the growth and 

 energy of the increasing family which has grown up around her, while 

 she in turn is regarded with respect and esteem by the various members 

 of that family, among whom there is a general desire to be enrolled in her 

 ranks. 



Nevertheless it is impossible not to perceive that the rise of all these 

 younger societies has materially affected the position of the Royal Society in 

 regard to the general advance of modern science. This society is no longer 

 the general depository of the records of that progress in all its branches. So 

 completely, for instance, do the Geological and Chemical Societies provide for 

 the requirements of their respective fields of investigation, that com- 

 munications from these fields come now comparatively seldom before us. If 

 one desires to follow the modern growth of geology or chemistry, one must 

 turn for its record to the publications not of the Pioyal Society, but of 



