3 
1917-18.] Opening Address by the President. 
pounds to Dr Kidston for the illustration of research work which he has 
now in hand. 
The second resolution has become necessary owing to the tendency of 
some authors to improve their communications in the page-proof stage. 
Certain corrections are doubtless essential, but when sentences are recast 
and interpolations are made, a limit ought to be placed on this expensive 
habit. This practice might be obviated by the exercise of greater care 
in the preparation of the materials, so as to ensure a clear and compact 
statement of the results. Some authors are apt to forget that the value 
of a paper depends not on its length, but on the standard of the original 
work. In this connection the remarks of Lord Rayleigh, in one of his 
Presidential Addresses to the Royal Society, are singularly appropriate : — 
“ In comparing the outputs of the present time and of, say, thirty years 
ago, the most striking feature that appears is doubtless the increase of 
bulk in recent years coming especially from young workers stimulated 
by the healthy encouragement of direct research as a part of scientific 
education. But I think it may also be observed, and not alone in the 
case of such early dissertations, that there is, on the whole, less care taken 
for the concise presentation of results, and that the main principles are 
often submerged under a flood of experimental detail. When the author 
himself has not taken the trouble to digest his material or to prepare it 
properly for the press, the reader may be tempted to judge of the care 
taken in the work from the pains taken in its presentation. The tendency 
in some subjects to submit for immediate publication the undigested con- 
tents of note-books is one that we hear much of at the present time. It 
is a matter that is difficult for publishing bodies to deal with, except by 
simple refusal of imperfectly prepared material, with its danger of giving 
offence to authors of recognised standing, but it seems not unlikely that 
at present public scientific opinion would endorse such a course of action. 
A related difficulty, and one that contributes to this trouble, is the tendency, 
noticeable in some public scientific organisations, to imagine that their 
activity is estimated by the number of pages of printed matter they can 
produce in the year. Probably no consideration is further removed than 
this from the minds of the educated public, whose judgment is alone 
worth considering.” 
The Fellows ought to realise that these resolutions have been adopted 
by the Council in order to reduce the expenditure connected with publica- 
tions. It is the duty of the Council, even under the strain of existing war 
conditions, to clear off this debt without delay, and in order to accomplish 
this end fewer papers ought to be issued, and the referee work ought to 
