Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/55

 1820-30] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 39 Happy the country where the love of science alone causes so many men of enlightened minds to combine in such an object! Happy, also, those who dwell there! " Apparently the modesty of some members of the Society was shocked by this public commendation and a new reprint was ordered with the requisite omission. But the words still stand in the Philosophical Magazine, and there is no harm in recalling the incident at this date. The Philosophical Magazine was founded by Alexander Tilloch, who was joined by Richard Taylor as editor in volume Ix. (1822). References to the Astronomical Society begin in volume Iv. (1820) with the announcement of its formation (p. 147), the Address (p. 201), and a few words about the first ordinary meeting on March 10 (p. 225). Each monthly number of the Magazine consisted at that time of exactly eighty pages, and it is easy to find the references near the end of the number among the doings of other Societies. But if we turn over the leaves in years preceding the formation of the Society in 1820, we find that matters of astro- nomical interest were frequently included. Thus in volume 1. (1817) there is a list of errata in the Nautical Almanac and a somewhat vigorous criticism of the compilers of that work, so that the Board of Longitude was a deaf adder before 1820. On p. 407 there is a paper by Count Laplace on the " Rings of Saturn," suggesting that the stationary appearance of parts of the ring (which we know nevertheless to be revolving) may be due to slight relative inclina- tions of separate rings to each other. In volume Hi. we note that a useful monthly list of astronomical phenomena given in previous volumes was for some reason dropped, though the meteorological information which regularly followed the list is retained. In volume liii., however, we get information about comets and ephemerides of the four minor planets. Such notes and references continued for many years, so that a student of astronomical history about the beginning of the century should not neglect the Philosophical Magazine, or, as it became in 1827, the Magazine and Annals of Philosophy. Tilloch was sole editor in 1820, and the early Notices are thus due to him. But on the arrival of Richard Taylor in 1822 as joint editor, they become distinctly fuller, in which we may probably trace his influence. But it was not until 1827 that separate copies were struck off for distribution, and apparently the move came from within the Society. The Council Report of 1828 February 8 (M.N., 1, 49) seems clear on this point : One of the first acts of the Council of the year elapsed, was to enter into an arrangement with Mr. Taylor, the printer to the