4 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [dec. 6, 
satisfaction would follow,, however carefully the selection be made ; 
some men who would he most desirable Fellows would he prevented 
from ever becoming candidates, and offence would he given to the 
unsuccessful, whose names would ever afterwards be pilloried in 
the Proceedings of our Society. A less objectionable plan would 
be for the Council to invite a certain number of representative men 
to become Fellows each year, hut it is doubtful if this would work 
well so long as fellowship involves the payment of fees. There 
seems to me nothing to fear from an increase in the number of 
Fellows from year to year. The larger the membership, the more 
are we likely to be in sympathy with the rapidly increasing number 
of the general public who interest themselves in the acquisition 
of new knowledge. We will be all the more powerful when we 
approach the Government on matters of public interest, and none 
the less able to give advice in Scottish scientific affairs. In his 
anniversary address, a few days ago, to the Koyal Society of London, 
the President suggests that that Society should be strengthened 
by the election of a number of distinguished literary men. This 
appears to be an admission that the election of fifteen from among 
candidates each year does not secure that diversity which it is 
desirable to have in a representative Society, and furnishes an 
additional argument against the adoption of such a method of 
election in our Society. 
One of the best evidences of the prosperity of the Society is to 
be found in the great increase in the size and value of the Society’s 
publications. If we include the extra volumes on the Ben Nevis 
observations and on the Botany of Socotra, which will shortly be 
issued to the Fellows, then the Proceedings and Transactions of the 
Society during the past three years probably surpass in bulk and 
importance those of any other Society in the United Kingdom for 
the same period. This must be gratifying to the Fellows, for the 
money value of the publications in these years is greater than the 
sums paid in annual fees. The illustrations for these papers have, 
it is true, been a great drain on the funds of the Society, but the 
money has been well spent. Just as it is the function of a Society 
like this to publish in great detail new observations and discoveries, 
which it would not pay an ordinary publisher to undertake, so 
should the illustrations of these papers be kept up to a high standard 
