1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Royal Society, The

ROYAL SOCIETY, THE, the oldest scientific society in Great Britain, and one of the oldest in Europe. The Royal Society (more fully, The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge) is usually considered to have been founded in the year 1660, but a nucleus had in fact been in existence for some years before that date. As early as the year 1645 weekly meetings were held in London of “divers worthy persons, inquisitive into natural philosophy and other parts of human learning, and particularly of what hath been called the New Philosophy or Experimental Philosophy,” and there can be little doubt that this gathering of philosophers is identical with the “Invisible College” of which Boyle speaks in sundry letters written in 1646 and 1647. These weekly meetings, according to Wallis, were first suggested by Theodore Haak, “a German of the Palatinate then resident in London,” and they were held sometimes in Dr Goddard’s lodgings in Wood Street, sometimes at the Bull-Head Tavern in Cheapside.

Some of these “Philosophers,” resident in Oxford about 1648, formed an association there under the title of the Philosophical Society of Oxford, and used to meet, most usually in the rooms of Dr Wilkins, warden of Wadham College. A close intercommunication was maintained between the Oxford and London Philosophers; but ultimately the activity of the society was concentrated in the London meetings, which were held principally at Gresham College.

On November 28, 1660, the first journal book of the society was opened with a “memorandum,” from which the following is an extract: “Memorandum that Novemb. 28. 1660, These persons following, according to the usuall custom of most of them, mett together at Gresham Colledge to heare Mr Wren’s lecture, viz. The Lord Brouncker, Mr Boyle, Mr Bruce, Sir Robert Moray, Sir Paul Neile, Dr Wilkins, Dr Goddard, Dr Petty, Mr Ball, Mr Rooke, Mr Wren, Mr Hill. And after the lecture was ended, they did, according to the usuall manner, withdrawe for mutuall converse. Where amongst other matters that were discoursed of, something was offered about a designe of founding a Colledge for the promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning.” It was agreed at this meeting that the company should continue to assemble on Wednesdays at three o'clock; an admission fee of ten shillings with a subscription of one shilling a week was instituted; Dr Wilkins was appointed chairman; and a list of forty-one persons judged likely and fit to join the design was drawn up. On the following Wednesday Sir Robert Moray brought word that the king (Charles II.) approved the design of the meetings; a form of obligation was framed, and was signed by all the persons enumerated in the memorandum of the 28th of November and by seventy-three others. On the 12th of December another meeting was held at

which fifty-five was fixed as the number of the society,—persons of the degree of baron, Fellows of the College of Physicians, and public professors of mathematics, physics and natural philosophy of both universities being supernumeraries.

Gresham College was now appointed to be the regular meeting-place of the society. Sir Robert Moray (or Murray) was chosen president (March 6, 1661), and continued from time to time to occupy the chair until the incorporation of the society, when Lord Brouncker was appointed the first president under the charter. In October 1661 the king offered to be entered one of the society, and next year the society was incorporated under its present title. The name “Royal Society” appears to have been first applied to the Philosophers by John Evelyn, in the dedication of his translation of a book by Gabriel Naudé, published in 1661. Evelyn received in that year the thanks of the “philosophic assembly” for the honourable mention he had made of them by the name of “The Royal Society.”

The charter of incorporation passed the Great Seal on the 15th of July 1662, to be modified, however, by a second charter in the following year, repeating the incorporating clauses of the first charter, but conferring further privileges on the society. The second charter passed the Great Seal on the 22nd of April 1663, and was followed in 1669 by a third, confirming the powers granted by the second charter, with some modifications of detail, and granting certain lands in Chelsea to the society. The council of the Royal Society met for the first time on the 13th of May 1663, when resolutions were passed that debate concerning those to be admitted should be secret, and that Fellows should pay 1s. a week to defray expenses.

At this early stage of its history the “correspondence” which was actively maintained with continental philosophers formed an important part of the society’s labours, and selections from this correspondence furnished the beginnings of the Philosophical Transactions (a publication now of world-wide celebrity). At first the publication of the Transactions was entirely “the act of the respective secretaries.” The first number, consisting of 16 quarto pages, appeared on Monday, March 6, 1664–65, under the title of Philosophical Transactions: giving some Accompt of the present undertakings, studies and labours of the Ingenious in many considerable parts of the world, with a dedication to the Royal Society signed by Henry Oldenburg, the first secretary of the society. It was ordered (1st of March 1664–65) “that the tract be licensed by the Council of the Society, being first reviewed by some of the members of the same.” In 1750, 496 numbers, or 46 volumes, had been published. After this date the work was issued under the superintendence of a committee, and the division into numbers disappeared. The society also from its earliest years published, or directed the publication of, separate treatises and books on matters of philosophy; most notable among these being the ''Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica Autore Is. Newton. Imprimatur: S. Pepys, Reg. Soc. Praeses. Julii 5, 1686, 4to Londini 1687''.

In 1887 the Philosophical Transactions was divided into two series, labelled A and B respectively, the former containing papers of a mathematical or physical character, and the latter papers of a biological character. More than 225 quarto volumes have been published. In 1832 appeared the first volume of Abstracts of papers printed in the Philosophical Transactions from the year 1800. This publication developed in the course of a few years into the Proceedings of the Royal Society, which has been continued up to the present time. It is published now in two series, corresponding to the two series of the Philosophical Transactions, and is issued in 8vo form at the rate of about three volumes a year.

It is, however, certain that one of the most important functions of the society from the beginning was the performance of experiments before the members. In the royal warrant of 1663 ordering the mace which the king presented to the society, it is described as “The Royal Society for the improving of Natural Knowledge by experiments”; and during its earlier years the

time of the meetings was principally occupied by the performance and discussion of experiments. The society early exercised the power granted by charter to appoint two “curators of experiments,” the first holder of that office being Robert Hooke, who was afterwards elected a secretary of the society.

Another matter to which the society gave attention was the formation of a museum, the nucleus being “the collection of rarities formerly belonging to Mr Hubbard,” which, by a resolution of council passed on the 21st of February 1666, was purchased for the sum of £100. This museum, at one time the most famous in London, was presented to the trustees of the British Museum in 1781, upon the removal of the society to Somerset House. A certain number, however, of instruments and models of historical interest have remained in the possession of the society, and some of them, more peculiarly associated with its earlier years, are still preserved at Burlington House. The remainder have been deposited in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington.

After the Great Fire of London in September 1666 the apartments of the Royal Society in Gresham College were required for the use of the city authorities, and the society were therefore invited by Henry Howard of Norfolk to meet in Arundel House. At the same time he presented them with the library purchased by his grandfather, Thomas earl of Arundel, and thus the foundation was laid of the important collection of scientific works, now exceeding 60,000 volumes, which the society possesses. Of the Arundel MSS. the bulk was sold to the trustees of the British Museum in 1830 for the sum of £3559, the proceeds being devoted to the purchase of scientific books. These MSS. are still kept in the British Museum as a separate collection. The society, however, still possesses a valuable collection of scientific correspondence, official records, and other manuscripts, including the original manuscript, with Newton’s autograph corrections, from which the first edition of the Principia was printed, and many other original documents of great interest.

Under date December 21, 1671, the journal-book records that “the lord bishop of Sarum proposed for candidate Mr Isaac Newton, professor of the mathematicks at Cambridge.” Newton was elected a Fellow January 11, 1671–72, and in 1703 he was appointed president, a post which he held till his death in 1727. During his presidency the society moved to Crane Court, their first meeting in the new quarters being held November 8, 1710. In the same year they were appointed visitors and directors of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, a function which they continued to perform until the accession of William IV., when by the new warrant then issued the president and six of the Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society were added to the list of visitors.

In 1780, under the presidency of Sir Joseph Banks, the Royal Society removed from Crane Court to the apartments assigned to them by the government in the new Somerset House, where they remained until they removed to Burlington House in 1857. The policy of Sir Joseph Banks was to render the Fellowship more difficult of attainment than it had been; and the measures which he took for this purpose, combined with other circumstances, led to the rise of a faction headed by Dr Horsley. Throughout the years 1783 and 1784 feeling ran exceedingly high, but in the end the president was supported by the majority of the society. An account of the controversy will be found in a tract entitled An Authentic Narrative of the Dissensions and Debates in the Royal Society. An important step in pursuance of the same policy was taken in the year 1847, when the number of candidates recommended for election by the council was limited to fifteen, and the election was made annual. This limitation has remained in force up to the present time. Concurrent with the gradual restriction of the Fellowship was the successive establishment of other scientific bodies. The founding of the Linnean Society in 1788 under the auspices of several Fellows of the Royal Society was the first instance of the establishment of a distinct scientific association under royal charter; and this has been followed by the formation of the

large number of societies now active in the promotion of special branches of science.