Decline of Science in England by Charles Babbage (red white royal blue txt) 📖

moral evidence, that members have spoken on one

side of the question, and have voted on the contrary.

 

This reluctance to oppose that which is disapproved, has been too

extensively and too fatally prevalent for the interests of the

Royal Society. It may partly be attributed to that reserved and

retiring disposition, which frequently marks the man of real

knowledge, as strongly as an officious interference and flippant

manner do the charlatan, or the trader in science. Some portion

of it is due to that improper deference which was long paid to

every dictum of the President, and much of it to that natural

indisposition to take trouble on any point in which a man’s own

interest is not immediately concerned. It is to be hoped, for

the credit of that learned body, that no anticipation of the next

feast of St. Andrew ever influenced the taciturnity of their

disposition. [It may be necessary to inform those who are not

members of the Royal Society, that this is the day on which those

Fellows who choose, meet at Somerset House, to register the names

of the Council and Officers the President has been pleased to

appoint for the ensuing year; and who afterwards dine together,

for the purpose of praising each other over wine, which, until

within these few years, was PAID for out of the FUNDS of the

Society. This abuse was attacked by an enterprising reformer,

and of course defended by the coterie. It was, however, given up

as too bad. The public may form some idea of the feeling which

prevails in the Council, when they are informed that this

practice was defended by one of the officers of the Society, on

the ground that, if abolished, THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY WOULD LOSE

HIS PERCENTAGE ON THE TAVERN BILLS.]

 

SECTION 2.

 

OF BIENNIAL PRESIDENTS.

 

The days in which the Royal Society can have much influence in

science seem long past; nor does it appear a matter of great

importance who conduct its mismanaged affairs. Perpetual

Presidents have been tried until the Society has become disgusted

with dictators. If any reform should be attempted, it might

perhaps be deserving consideration whether the practice of

several of the younger institutions might not be worthy

imitation, and the office of President be continued only during

two sessions. There may be some inconveniences attending this

arrangement; but the advantages are conspicuous, both in the

Astronomical and Geological Societies. Each President is

ambitious of rendering the period of his reign remarkable for

some improvement in the Society over which he presides; and the

sacrifice of time which is made by the officers of those

Societies, would become impossible if it were required to be

continued for a much longer period. Another circumstance of

considerable importance is, that the personal character of the

President is less impressed on the Society; and, supposing any

injudicious alterations to be made, it is much less difficult to

correct them.

 

SECTION 3.

 

OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE COLLEGES OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS IN

THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

 

The honour of belonging to the Royal Society is much sought after

by medical men, as contributing to the success of their

professional efforts, and two consequences result from it. In

the first place, the pages of the Transactions of the Royal

Society occasionally contain medical papers of very moderate

merit; and, in the second, the preponderance of the medical

interest introduces into the Society some of the jealousies of

that profession. On the other hand, medicine is intimately

connected with many sciences, and its professors are usually too

much occupied in their practice to exert themselves, except upon

great occasions.

 

SECTION 4.

 

OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION ON THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

 

The Royal Institution was founded for the cultivation of the more

popular and elementary branches of scientific knowledge, and has

risen, partly from the splendid discoveries of Davy, and partly

from the decline of the Royal Society, to a more prominent

station than it would otherwise have occupied in the science of

England. Its general effects in diffusing knowledge among the

more educated classes of the metropolis, have been, and continue

to be, valuable. Its influence, however, in the government of

the Royal Society, is by no means attended with similar

advantages, and has justly been viewed with considerable jealousy

by many of the Fellows of that body. It may be stated, without

disparagement to the Royal Institution, that the scientific

qualifications necessary for its officers, however respectable,

are not quite of that high order which ought to be required for

those of the Royal Society, if the latter body were in a state of

vigour.

 

The Royal Institution interest has always been sufficient to

appoint one of the Secretaries of the Royal Society; and at the

present moment they have appointed two. In a short time, unless

some effectual check is put to this, we shall find them

nominating the President and the rest of the officers. It is

certainly not consistent with the dignity of the Royal Society

thus to allow its offices to be given away as the rewards of

services rendered to other institutions. The only effectual way

to put a stop to this increasing interest would be, to declare

that no manager or officer of the Royal Institution should ever,

at the same time, hold office in the Royal Society.

 

The use the Members of the Royal Institution endeavour to make of

their power in the Council of the Royal Society, is exemplified

in the minutes of the Council of March 11, 1830, which may be

consulted with advantage by those who doubt.

 

SECTION 5.

 

OF THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

 

The Transactions of the Royal Society, unlike those of most

foreign academies, contain nothing relating to the history of the

Society. The volumes contain merely those papers communicated to

the Society in the preceding year which the Council have selected

for printing, a meteorological register, and a notice of the

award of the annual medals, without any list of the Council and

officers of the Society, by whom that selection and that award

have been made.

 

Before I proceed to criticise this state of things, I will

mention one point on which I am glad to he able to bestow on the

Royal Society the highest praise. I refer to the extreme

regularity with which the volumes of the Transactions are

published. The appearance of the half-volumes at intervals of

six months, insures for any communication almost immediate

publicity; whilst the shortness of the time between its reception

and publication, is a guarantee to the public that the whole of

the paper was really communicated at the time it bears date. To

this may also be added, the rarity of any alterations made

previously to the printing, a circumstance which ought to be

imitated, as well as admired, by other societies. There may,

indeed, be some, perhaps the Geological, in which the task is

more difficult, from the nature of the subject. The sooner,

however, all societies can reduce themselves to this rule, of

rarely allowing any thing but a few verbal corrections to papers

that are placed in their hands, the better it will be for their

own reputation, and for the interests of science.

 

It has been, and continues to be, a subject of deep regret, that

the first scientific academy in Europe, the Institute of France,

should be thus negligent in the regularity of its publications;

and it is the more to be regretted, that it should be years in

arrear, from the circumstance, that the memoirs admitted into

their collection are usually of the highest merit. I know some

of their most active members have wished it were otherwise; I

would urge them to put a stop to a practice, which, whilst it has

no advantages to recommend it, is unjust to those who contribute,

and is only calculated to produce conflicting claims, equally

injurious to science, and to the reputation of that body, whose

negligence may have given rise to them. [Mr. Herschel, speaking

of a paper of Fresnel’s, observes—“This memoir was read to the

Institute, 7th of October, 1816; a supplement was received, 19th

of January, 1818; M. Arago’s report on it was read, 4th of June,

1821: and while every optical philosopher in Europe has been

impatiently expecting its appearance for seven years, it lies as

yet unpublished, and is only known to us by meagre notices in a

periodical journal.“MR HERSCHEL’S TREATISE ON LIGHT, p. 533.

—ENCYCLOPAEDIA METROPOLITANA.]

 

One of the inconveniences arising from having no historical

portion in the volumes of the Royal Society is, that not only the

public, but our own members are almost entirely ignorant of all

its affairs. With a means of giving considerable publicity (by

the circulation of above 800 copies of the Transactions) to

whatever we wish to have made known to our members or to the

world, will it be credited, that no notice was taken in our

volume for 1826, of the foundation of two Royal medals, nor of

the conditions under which they were to be distributed. [That

the Council refrained from having their first award of those

medals thus communicated, is rather creditable to them, and

proves that they had a becoming feeling respecting their former

errors.] That in 1828, when a new fund, called the donation fund,

was established, and through the liberality of Dr. Wollaston and

Mr. Davies Gilbert, it was endowed by them with the respective

sums of 2,000L. and 1,000L. 3 per cents; no notice of such fact

appears in our Transactions for 1829. Other gentlemen have

contributed; and if it is desirable to possess such a fund, it is

surely of importance to inform the non-attending, which is by far

the largest part of the Society, that it exists; and that we are

grateful to those by whom it has been founded and augmented.

Neither did the Philosophical Transactions inform our absent

members, that they could purchase the President’s Discourses at

the trade-price.

 

The list of the Officers, Council, and Members of the Royal

Society is printed annually; yet, who ever saw it bound up with

the Philosophical Transactions, to which it is intended to be

attached? I never met with a single copy of that work so

completed, not even the one in our own library. It is extremely

desirable that the Society should know the names of their

Council; and whilst it would in some measure contribute to

prevent the President from placing incompetent persons upon it,

it would also afford some check, although perhaps but a slight

one, on the distribution of the medals. When I have urged the

expediency of the practice, I have been answered by excuses, that

the list could not be made up in time for the volume. If this is

true of the first part, they might appear with the second; and

even if this were impracticable, the plan of prefixing them to

the volume of the succeeding year, would be preferable to that of

omitting them altogether. The true reason, however, appeared at

last. It was objected to the plan, that by the present

arrangement, the porter of the Royal Society took round the list

to those members resident in London, and got from some of them a

remuneration, in the shape of a Christmas-box; and this would be

lost, if the time of printing were changed. [During the printing

of this chapter, a friend, on whom I had called, complained that

the porter of the Royal Society had demanded half-a-crown for

leaving the list.] Such are the paltry interests to which those

of the Royal Society are made to bow.

 

Another point on which information ought to be given in each

volume, is the conditions on which the distribution of the

Society’s medals are made. It is