Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/157

 i86o-7o] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 133 connected with the Society, while the importance of directing the attention of Fellows from time to time to the labours of Astronomers in other countries has not been lost sight of. ... A plan has been carried into effect by which the Monthly Notices will become an integral part of the volumes of the Memoirs. All are aware that, for some years past, an octavo volume of Monthly Notices has always been given with each volume of Memoirs sold. It has been found that, by re-imposing the type of the Monthly Notices into a quarto form, with double columns, it is practicable to form an edition of the Notices which may be stitched up with the Memoirs so as actually to form part of the volume. The expense of printing the annual report of each year twice will thus be avoided. It has some- times been suggested that it was unnecessary to make the annual report a part of the volume of Memoirs, but those who have been students of old history have always protested against the omission. They have represented that it is a very serious defect of the older Transactions that they supply no materials for the histories of their several societies ; from which it not unfrequently arises that the papers themselves are unaccompanied by information necessary to their being properly understood as historical monuments. Both ends are now made to meet ; the annual report, and much current information besides, form a part of the very volume which contains the larger Memoirs ; and the annual report is not printed twice." These arrangements were carried into effect in 1860, and the publication of the Monthly Notices was continued in octavo form, and also in the quarto form in double columns. Thus volume 19 of the Monthly Notices appeared as an appendix to volume 28 of the Memoirs in 1860 ; and so on until 1867, when it was decided to discontinue the quarto form of the Monthly Notices. Thus volume 36 of the Memoirs is the last to contain the reimposed Monthly Notices, and volume 27 of the latter is the last that was reimposed. We may conclude these references to the adminis- trative side of our publications by stating that the volumes of the Monthly Notices for the last two years in the decade con- tained 325 and 231 pages respectively, large compared with the earliest volumes, however small in comparison with our recent volumes, some of which run to 700 or 800 pages. Robert Grant resigned his duties as editor of the Monthly Notices in 1859 November, on his appointment to the Professorship of Astronomy at Glasgow. He was the author of the well-known History of Physical Astronomy, published in 1852, a book of per- manent value ; and to his literary tastes and his discernment in historical matters we owe a considerable debt. He introduced into our publications brief notices of valuable astronomical papers that had appeared in foreign serial publications. He was succeeded by Arthur Cayley in the editorship of the Society's publications.