[ iv ] 
thanks, which are frequently proposed from the Chair, to be given to the authors of 
such papers as are read at their accustomed meetings, or to the persons through whose 
hands they received them, are to be considered in no other light than as a matter of 
civility, in return for the respect shown to the Society by those communications. The 
like also is to be said with regard to the several projects, inventions, and curiosities of 
various kinds, which are often exhibited to the Society ; the authors whereof, or those 
who exhibit them, frequently take the liberty to report and even to certify in the public 
newspapers, that they have met with the highest applause and approbation. And 
therefore it is hoped that no regard will hereafter be paid to such reports and public 
notices ; which in some instances have been too lightly credited, to the dishonour of the 
Society. 
The Meteorological Journal hitherto kept by the Assistant Secretary at the Apart- 
ments of the Royal Society, by order of the President and Council, and published in 
the Philosophical Transactions, has been discontinued. The Government, on the recom- 
mendation of the President and Council, has established at the Royal Observatory at 
Greenwich, imder the superintendence of the Astronomer Royal, a Magnetical and 
Meteorological Observatory, where observations are made on an extended scale, which 
are regularly published. These, which correspond with the grand scheme of observations 
now carrying out in different parts of the globe, supersede the necessity of a continuance 
of the observations made at the Apartments of the Royal Society, which could not be 
rendered so perfect as was desirable, on account of the imperfections of the locality and 
the multiplied duties of the observer. 
