209 
the last year. It was on this ground, and this ground only, that 
I urged the propriety of the old arrangement. I knew that a 
large number of members who lived in the country were induced 
to continue their subscriptions for the sake of the journal. When, 
however, the Council determined to break their connection with 
the journal, both the editors and publishers felt that the journal 
would not suffer. The editors felt that the necessity of pub- 
lishing papers over which they had no control burdened the 
journal with matter that was not consistent with a popular 
circulation, whilst the publishers felt that they were supplying 
the journal to the members at a price that was not at all com- 
mensurate with the value of the Society’s contributions. Under 
these circumstances neither I nor Mr. Busk thought it necessary 
to come down to your meetings and force on a discussion to 
which your Council evidently objected. Now, however, that your 
Council has chosen, not only to select an editor of your ‘ Transac- 
tions ’ outside your Society, to publish them in another journal, 
and to subsidize another publisher in opposition to the one who 
has published them for so many years, I thought that it was due 
to myself and due to you that you should have an opportunity of 
speaking and voting on the subject. I have not sought counsel 
with any one on this subject, and I shall leave the matter in your 
hands. You have heard to-night what your President has had to 
say on the subject, and I have no doubt your Council has been 
actuated by honorable motives, but it is for you to say whether 
you think what they have done is right in your sight, and likely 
to conduce to the interests of your Society and the advancement 
of microscopical science. I for one object to the arrangement of 
your new journal, in which your ‘ Transactions ’ are mixed up 
and paged with any inferior matter which your new editor 
chooses to place them in juxtaposition. This I believe is quite 
unique in the publication of scientific transactions in any part of 
Europe, and I believe likely to damage the prestige and influence 
of the Society’s ‘ Transactions,’ especially on the Continent of 
Europe, where imperfect accounts of the proceedings of their own 
societies in another language cannot be regarded as of any literary 
or scientific value. I must confess that when the Council deter- 
mined to cut us adrift I had hoped to see them spending their 
funds in the publication of ‘ Transactions ’ that would become 
their new title of ‘ Royal,’ that in size and illustration might stand 
on the same shelves with the ‘ Transactions of the Royal Society of 
London.’ I know that I am not alone in feeling disappointment 
in the course your Council have taken. In conclusion, I would 
say I have no personal feeling in this matter. I have long knqwn 
your new editor as a laborious worker in the field of scientific 
literature ; with your new publisher I have long been connected, 
and know him as an honorable and upright man ; and if your 
decision should be to continue your new journal, I am sure it 
will interfere with no interests of mine, and I heartily wish it all 
the success it deserves.” 
VOL. IX. NEW SER. 
o 
