ADVERTISEMENT. 
The  Committee  appointed  by  the  Moyal  Society  to  direct  the  publication  of  the 
PMlosc^Mcal  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  pubhcation,  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,  contauied  in  the  several  papers  so  published,  which  must 
still  rest  on  the  credit  or  judgement  of  their  respective  authors. 
It  is  like-wise  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, 
upon  any  subject,  either  of  Nature  or  Art,  that  comes  before  them.  And  therefore  the 
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