six months, insures for any communication almost immediate
publicity; whilst the shortness of the time between its reception
and publication, is a guarantee to the public that the whole of
the paper was really communicated at the time it bears date. To
this may also be added, the rarity of any alterations made
previously to the printing, a circumstance which ought to be
imitated, as well as admired, by other societies. There may,
indeed, be some, perhaps the Geological, in which the task is
more difficult, from the nature of the subject. The sooner,
however, all societies can reduce themselves to this rule, of
rarely allowing any thing but a few verbal corrections to papers
that are placed in their hands, the better it will be for their
own reputation, and for the interests of science.
It has been, and continues to be, a subject of deep regret, that
the first scientific academy in Europe, the Institute of France,
should be thus negligent in the regularity of its publications;
and it is the more to be regretted, that it should be years in
arrear, from the circumstance, that the memoirs admitted into
their collection are usually of the highest merit. I know some
of their most active members have wished it were otherwise; I
would urge them to put a stop to a practice, which, whilst it has
no advantages to recommend it, is unjust to those who contribute,
and is only calculated to produce conflicting claims, equally
injurious to science, and to the reputation of that body, whose
negligence may have given rise to them. [Mr. Herschel, speaking
of a paper of Fresnel's, observes--"This memoir was read to the
Institute, 7th of October, 1816; a supplement was received, 19th
of January, 1818; M. Arago's report on it was read, 4th of June,
1821: and while every optical philosopher in Europe has been
impatiently expecting its appearance for seven years, it lies as
yet unpublished, and is only known to us by meagre notices in a
periodical journal."MR HERSCHEL'S TREATISE ON LIGHT, p. 533.
--ENCYCLOPAEDIA METROPOLITANA.]
One of the inconveniences arising from having no historical
portion in the volumes of the Royal Society is, that not only the
public, but our own members are almost entirely ignorant of all
its affairs. With a means of giving considerable publicity (by
the circulation of above 800 copies of the Transactions) to
whatever we wish to have made known to our members or to the
world, will it be credited, that no notice was taken in our
volume for 1826, of the foundation of two Royal medals, nor of
the conditions under which they were to be distributed. [That
the Council refrained from having their first award of those
medals thus communicated, is rather creditable to them, and
proves that they had a becoming feeling respecting their former
errors.] That in 1828, when a new fund, called the donation fund,
was established, and through the liberality of Dr. Wollaston and
Mr. Davies Gilbert, it was endowed by them with the respective
sums of 2,000L. and 1,000L. 3 per cents; no notice of such fact
appears in our Transactions for 1829. Other gentlemen have
contributed; and if it is desirable to possess such a fund, it is
surely of importance to inform the non-attending, which is by far
the largest part of the Society, that it exists; and that we are
grateful to those by whom it has been founded and augmented.
Neither did the Philosophical Transactions inform our absent