THE RAY SOCIETY. 
The Secretary Dr. Lankester, read the following Report: 
The Society whose first Annual Meeting we are met to com- 
memorate, had its origin in a wish, expressed by Dr. Johnston of 
Berwick, to some of his scientific friends, that some means could 
be devised for printing such works on Natural History, as stand in 
need of extraneous assistance to ensure their publication. The scien- 
tific value of zoological and botanical works is generally in the in- 
verse ratio to their popularity, and it often happens that the authors 
of profound scientific researches are compelled, either to make their 
writings popular, or to incur the inevitable loss consequent on pub- 
lishing, on their own account, works whose circulation is confined to 
lovers of science only. In cases of this kind it has been usual to 
apply for aid to Her Majesty’s Government, but though assistance 
has been occasionally obtained from this source, yet there are 
many difficulties attending such applications. These difficulties w^ere 
sensibly felt last year at the Cork meeting of the British Association, 
when several elaborate MS. works on various departments of Natural 
History were laid before the Association, and their claims on 
its assistance were backed by the influence of the Sectional Com- 
mittees, but, from the limited state of its funds, the Association was un- 
willingly compelled to withhold the desired aid. Here then were several 
original researches of great value to science returned upon the hands 
of their authors, merely because the booksellers would not incur the 
risk of their publication, while scientific bodies were unable to assist 
them. To rescue such precious materials from oblivion, is one of 
the objects for which the Ray Society was instituted, and it has 
been ascertained that by applying the whole funds of the Society, 
with rigid economy, to the printing and issuing appropriate volumes 
on the plan of the Camden, Sydenham, and other similar Societies, 
a large dividend of scientific matter may be annually distributed to 
the Subscribers. In carrying out this project, however, the Society 
will carefully avoid interfering with the interests of the book trade, or 
of scientific societies, and to quote the words of our own regulations, 
** It will be a direction to the Couneil that they shall not print any 
thing that appears to them suitable to the transactions of established 
societies, nor any work which a respectable publisher shall under- 
take to publish without charge to the author.” 
