top to this increasing interest would be, to declare that no manager
or officer of the Royal Institution should ever, at the same time, hold
office in the Royal Society.

The use the Members of the Royal Institution endeavour to make of their
power in the Council of the Royal Society, is exemplified in the minutes
of the Council of March 11, 1830, which may be consulted with advantage
by those who doubt.

SECTION 5. OF THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

The Transactions of the Royal Society, unlike those of most foreign
academies, contain nothing relating to the history of the Society. The
volumes contain merely those papers communicated to the Society in
the preceding year which the Council have selected for printing, a
meteorological register, and a notice of the award of the annual medals,
without any list of the Council and officers of the Society, by whom
that selection and that award have been made.

Before I proceed to criticise this state of things, I will mention one
point on which I am glad to be able to bestow on the Royal Society the
highest praise. I refer to the extreme regularity with which the volumes
of the Transactions are published. The appearance of the half-volumes at
intervals of 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 we