1909.] 



Anniversary Address by Sir A. Geikie. 



159 



the number of our Fellows more than one admirably qualified by wide 

 knowledge and rare powers of generalisation to present a connected view 

 of the broader bearings of discovery in the scientific domain in which 

 each is a master. Memoirs of this type will, I trust, continue to be 

 laid before us, perhaps at more frequent intervals, thus upholding the 

 renown of our ' Philosophical Transactions ' and sustaining the prestige of 

 the Society. 



Before passing from the subject of our publications, there is one aspect 

 of them to which I should like to refer — the cost of their production. This 

 item of our expenditure has increased so much in recent years as sometimes 

 to raise serious doubts whether we shall continue to be able to defray it 

 out of our annual income. A large part of the outlay lies in the cost of 

 the illustrations. There cannot, of course, be any difference of opinion as 

 to the importance and necessity of the adequate illustration of the papers 

 published by the Society. But while this general admission is made, it may 

 be fittingly qualified by the statement that many authors are somewhat 

 prone to over-illustrate their papers. Every care is taken by the Officers, 

 the Eeferees, the Sectional Committees, and the Council as far as possible to 

 keep this source of expenditure within reasonable bounds, and, as might be 

 anticipated, their efforts in this matter are not always appreciated by the 

 authors. Even in the case of the most important memoirs the unenviable 

 duty is sometimes imposed on the Secretaries of asking the writers to 

 undertake the painful task of deciding which of the illustrations, whereon 

 much care had doubtless been bestowed, could be eliminated with least 

 detriment to the text, so as to bring the total cost within the limits of the 

 Society's means. It would obviously be more agreeable to all concerned to 

 reproduce every figure and plate of a worthy, if expensive, memoir, and to do 

 so in the most excellent style of modern art. Were it not, however, for 

 the annual grant of £1000 voted by Parliament to assist the vSociety in its 

 publications, we should not be in a position to deal as liberally as is now 

 done in the matter of illustration. Yet it should be remembered that the 

 Eoyal Society does not appropriate the whole of that grant to its own uses, 

 but considers the claims made upon it by other learned bodies. Until, 

 therefore, some generous donor shall provide the necessary addition to our 

 resources, I am afraid that we must continue our present vigilant watch over 

 the expenses of our publications, while securing, it is hoped, that nothing 

 absolutely essential is held back. 



Besides the issue of the ' Philosophical Transactions ' and ' Proceedings,' 

 the Royal Society has been engaged for more than forty years in the pre- 

 paration and publication of a ' Catalogue of Scientific Papers ' from the 



