C !ii 3 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
The Committee appointed by the Royal Society to direct the pub- 
lication of the Philosophical Transactions , 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 several former Transactions , that the printing of 
them was always, from time to time, the single act of the respective 
Secretaries, till the Forty-seventh Volume : the Society, as a Body, 
never interesting themselves any further in their publication, than by 
occasionally recommending the revival of them to some of their Se- 
cretaries, when, from the particular circumstances of their affairs, the 
Transactions had happened for any length of time to be intermitted. 
And this seems principally to have been done with a view to satisfy 
the Public, that their usual meetings were then continued, for the im- 
provement of knowledge, and benefit of mankind, the great ends of 
their first institution by the Royal Charters, and which they have ever 
since steadily pursued. 
But the Society being of late years greatly enlarged, and their com- 
munications more numerous, it was thought advisable, that a Com- 
mittee of their members should be appointed, to reconsider the papers 
read before them, and select out of them such as they should judge 
most proper for publication in the future Transactions ; which was 
accordingly done upon the 26th of March, 1752. And the grounds 
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