ADVERTISEMENT. 
The Committee appointed by the Royal Society to direct the publication 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 occa- 
sionally recommending the revival of them to some of their Secretaries, 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 improvement 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 communica- 
tions more numerous, it was thought advisable that a Committee of their mem- 
bers 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 of their choice are, and will continue to be, the importance and 
singularity of the subjects, or the advantageous manner of treating them ; with- 
out pretending to answer for the certainty of the facts, or propriety of the rea- 
sonings, contained in the several papers so published, which must still rest on 
the credit or judgment of their respective authors. 
It is likewise necessary on this occasion to remark, that it is an established 
rule of the Society, to which they will always adhere, never to give their opinion, 
a 2 
