[ iii ] 
advertisement. 
T he Committee appointed by die ^oyiil S(fciefy to dire£l: tbe pub- 
lication of the I^^hiiofopMcal "TtirnfaElions, take this opportunity to 
acquaint the Public, that it fully appears, as well from the council-books 
and journals of the Society, as from repeated declarations, Which have 
been made in feveral former Tranfadionsj that the printing of them was 
always, from time to time, the litigle aft of the refpeftive Secretaries, till 
the Forty-feventh Volume. And this information was thought the liiorc 
necelTary, not only as it had been the common opinion, that they were 
publilhed by the authority, and under the direftion, of the Society it- 
felf ; but alfo, becaufe feveral authors, both at home and abroad, have 
in their writings called them the 'TranfafUons of the Royal Society, 
Whereas in truth the Society, as a body, never did interen: themfelves 
any further in their publication, than by occafionally recomihending the 
revival of them to fome of their Secretaries, when, from* the particular 
circLimftances of their affairs, the Tranfadions had happened for any 
length of time to be intermitted. And this feems principally to have 
been done with a view to fatisfy the Public, that their ufual meetings 
were then continued for the improvement of knowledge, and benefit of 
mankind, the great ends of their firfl; iUftitution by the Royal Charters, 
and which they have ever fmee fteadily purfued. 
But the Society being of late years greatly inlarged, and their com- 
munications more numerous, it was thought advifeable, that a Committee 
of their members Ihould be appointed to reconfider the papers read be- 
fore them, and feleft out of them fuch, as they fliould judge mofl pro- 
per for publication in the future Tranfadions ; which was accordingly 
done upon the 26th of March 1752. And the grounds of their choice 
are, and will continue to be, the importance and fingularity of the fub- 
jeft-^, or the advantageous manner of treating them ; without pretending 
to 
a 2 
