1880.] Report on Scientific Societies . 481 
on the other hand, as well as the laboratory, have ceased to 
exist. 
In consequence of the great subdivision of Science the 
meetings of the Royal Society are attended by few members, 
still fewer of whom generally take any interest in the papers 
that are read. As for the medals awarded by the Society 
they can be considered only as badges, but scarcely as 
recompenses, still less as incentives to work. Similarly, the 
sums annually distributed out of the donation fund, and the 
grant obtained from Government, have been hitherto pro- 
ductive of little good, at least in so far as they have mostly 
conduced to such researches only as without such aid would 
have been executed as well ; and strange to say, the fund 
and grant, however unimportant, are not even annually ex- 
hausted. The greatest service that Science has recently 
had to thank the Society for consists in the publication of 
the Catalogue of Memoirs which has been undertaken by 
the Royal Society, partly, upon the initiative of the British 
Association, and at the expense (so far as printing, paper, 
and binding) of Government. 
I trust that neither yourself as Secretary, nor anyone 
else, will consider the above remarks as conveying anything 
disrespectful to the Royal Society, which, from the great 
number of highly eminent persons it includes, cannot but 
command, even if it had no other titles, everybody’s esteem. 
But if I may quote words of my own, “ a Society may be 
said to fulfil a useful purpose if its members combined pro- 
duce a greater amount of valuable results than they would 
in the aggregate if in a state of isolation ; or, still better, if 
the Society in its corporate capacity performs services which 
no individual or individuals unconnected with each other 
could render.” Now, I may be permitted to ask, has such 
been the Royal Society’s case of late years ? In my opinion 
it is more of an ornament than a utility to the State ; and 
the tendency to make it such is apparent also in the compa- 
ratively new practice, according to which the number of 
Fellows annually elected has been limited, and that at quite 
an inconsiderable figure. Such a proceeding is intelligible 
enough, although detrimental likewise, in the case of the 
foreign academies, the members of which are paid, and con- 
sidered somewhat as functionaries of State ; but it must 
appear strange on the part of a voluntary association, the 
members of which pay an annual contribution, destined for 
the “ promotion of natural knowledge.” 
The remaining London Societies — being formed on the 
model of the Royal Society, but less exclusive in their elec- 
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