Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/54

 3 8 HISTORY OF THE [1820-30 Memoirs, vol. iii., published by Priestley & Weale, Holborn ; 1829 on title-page. Printed by Richard Taylor, now removed to Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. Ends with list of Fellows on 1829 February 13. (Minute of Council on this day states that the volume was closed there because of change of printer.) Memoirs, vol. iv. ; Priestley & Weale, 1831 ;. printed by J. Moyes, Castle Street. Ends with list of Fellows on 1831 June 10. By this time the Monthly Notices had been established, and we may now turn to their early history, showing incidentally how these changes of printer and publisher came about. THE " MONTHLY NOTICES " The first number of the Monthly Notices is headed with the date 1827 February 9, and contains the Council Report. It has been generally accepted as indicating that there are no similar records for the first seven years of the Society's existence. But in the copy of this number possessed by the writer there is the imprint " From the Philosophical Magazine and Annals ; printed by Richard Taylor, Shoe-Lane, London," which naturally led to an examination of the Philosophical Magazine of that date. It was found that brief notices of this kind had been regularly printed therein from the first : the novelty was simply that of having separate copies struck off for the use of the Fellows. Even then there was apparently no thought of collecting them in volume form : this was not done till 1831, and most copies of the first fourteen Notices are reprints made about that date by a different printer (J. Moyes, Castle Street, Leicester Square, with Priestley & Weale as publishers). The copy above mentioned, which apparently contains the sheets struck off at the time, exhibits one or two features of special interest. Thus following No. i there are two copies of No. 2, both dated 1827 March 9, and identical except for two features : firstly, Roman figures (No. II.) are used in the first (as in No. I.) and Arabic (No. 2) in the second, and consistently afterwards : secondly, a whole sentence is omitted from the later copy. After the words in No. 2 : M. Gambart exhibits a comparison of the results of these elements, and of his observations on the 27th, 28th, and 29th of December, there follow in the originals (i.e. in the Philosophical Magazine itself and in the first reprint) the words : He then adds a few remarks, which need not be recorded, and congratulates himself and astronomers generally upon the existence and success of the Astronomical Society of London. " What," he asks, " may not be expected from so liberal an association ?