ervations which are from time to time given to the
Society, may be of such a nature, that but few of the members are
interested in them. In such cases, the expense of printing above 800
copies may reasonably induce the Council to decline printing them
altogether; whereas, if they had any means of discrimination for
distributing them, they might be quite willing to incur the expense
of printing 250. Other cases may occur, in which great advantage
would accrue, if the principle were once admitted. Government, the
Universities, public bodies, and even individuals might, in some cases,
be disposed to present to the Royal Society a limited number of copies
of their works, if they knew that they were likely to be placed in
the hands of persons who would use them. Fifty or a hundred additional
copies might, in some cases, not be objected to on the ground of
expense, when seven or eight hundred would be quite out of the question.

Let us suppose twenty copies of a description of some new chemical
process to be placed at the disposal of the Royal Society by any public
body; it will not surely be contended that they ought all to remain on
the Society's shelves. Yet, with our present rules, that would be the
case. If, however, the list of the Members of the Society were read over
to the Council, and the names of those gentlemen known to be conversant
with chemical science were written down; then, if nineteen copies of
the work were given to those nineteen persons on this list, who had
contributed most to the Transactions of the Society, they would in all
probability be placed in the fittest hands.

Complete sets of the Philosophical Transactions have now become
extremely bulky; it might be well worth our consideration, whether the
knowledge of the many valuable papers they contain would not be much
spread, by publishing the abstracts of them which have been read at the
ordinary meetings of the Society. Perhaps two or three volumes octavo,
would contain all that has been done in this way during the last
century.

Another circumstance, which would contribute much to the order of the
proceedings of the Council, would be to have a distinct list made out of
all the statutes and orders of the Council relating to each particular
subject.

Thus the President, by having at one view before him all that had ever
been decreed on the question under consideration, would be much better
able to prevent inconsistent resolutions, and to save th