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 occasionally 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 communications 
more numerous, it was thought advisable that a Committee 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 of their 
choice are, and will continue to be, the importance and singularity of the subjects, or 
the advantageous manner of treating them ; without pretending to answer for the 
certainty of the facts, or propriety of the reasonings, contained in the several papers 
so published, which must still rest on the credit or judgement 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, as a Body, 
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