n s. VL SEPT. 28, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
243
THE ROYAL SOCIETY'S
250TH ANNIVERSARY. (See ante, pp. 181, 202, 223.)
AT the meeting of the Society on the 9th of June, 1848, new statutes relating to the election of Fellows were introduced. These regulations restricted the number of new Fellows annually elected to fifteen ; ten pounds was to be paid on admission, and four pounds annually, or a composition of sixty pounds. " The object of these Athenaeum stated on the 17th
rules,"
of June,
' was to drive out the merely aristocratic element,
<ind to restrict the fellowship to men, really
connected with, or who had rendered some
service to, science, so that the letters F.B.S.
should have a scientific meaning."
The result of these rules was to reduce the number of Fellows from 839 in 1847 to 626 in 1866, to 567 in 1875, and to 552 in 1877. In October, 1885. there were 524 Fellows, including the 5 Royal and the 49 Foreign members.
In 1878, thirty years after the arrangement for the admission of Fellows made in 1848, a Fee Reduction Fund was started, to relieve future Fellows of the Society except Privy Councillors and other privileged Fellows of the ten pounds paid as admission fee and of one pound out of the four pound annual subscription. Sir Joseph Whitworth contributed 2,000?., and Sir William (after- wards Lord) Armstrong and Mr. James Young, F.R.S., 1,000?. each, the amount raised being 10,111?. 5s. Among the other funds of the Society is the Gassiot Trust This is named after the late John Peter Gassiot, F.R.S., who in 1871 conveyec to the Society 10,000?. Italian Irrigation Bonds, for the purpose of assisting in carry ing on and continuing magnetical anc meteorological observations with self -record ing instruments, and any other physica investigations that might from time to time be practicable and desirable in th Kew Observatory. The Scientific Relief Func was originated in 1859 on the proposition o Mr. Gassiot, and is for the benefit of scien tific men or their families who may from time to time require assistance. Lord Armstrong contributed 7,800?., and the present income is about 670?. There are several Medal Funds, including the Royal Medals founded by George IV. at the suggestion of Sir Robert Peel, who, as is still gratefully remembered, was always ready to show his sympathy with science and literature.
Among the many specially interesting
neetings that the Royal Society has held,
ew can have exceeded that of the 18th of
lay, 1850, at which Prince Albert was
present, when the original model of Sir
Humphry Davy's safety lamp was among
objects exhibited. It was in November,
815, that Davy first read a paper before
he Society ' On the Fire Damp of Coal
Mines, and on Methods of lighting the
Mines, so as to prevent its Explosion.' He
continued his experiments, and in January
of the following year explained his invention.
The model, which was made by Davy's
own hand, and is now in the possession
of the Society, answers in every respect
- o his description, and to the representation
of the lamp which accompanied the paper.
Among the many useful works of the Royal Society is that of maintaining the standard yard and standard avoirdupois pound. These were settled by Parliament in 1824, and the standards were in the custody of the Clerk of the House of Com- mons, but were destroyed by the fire in 1834. A Commission (the members of which were all Fellows of the Royal Society) was subsequently appointed to consider the steps to be taken for the restoration of the standards. After an infinite number of experiments carried out by the Rev. Richard Sheepshanks (who had placed at his service by the Government apparatus far superior to that possessed by his predecessors) in the lower tiers of cellars in Somerset House, which were very favourable to the work on account of their slow-changing tempera- ture, two standards were constructed, and The Athenceum of October 22nd, 1853, stated that
" the originals had been inclosed in one of the walls of the new Houses of Parliament ; and perfectly accurate copies were placed by Mr. Airy in the custody of the Royal Society on last Thursday."
On the 17th of November, 1855, The Athenceum announced that the Government had ordered the sum of 1,000?. to be placed at the disposal of the Society for scientific purposes, and had informed the Council that a similar sum would be annually included in the miscellaneous estimates for the advancement of science.
On Friday, November 30th, 1860, the Society quietly held its two hundredth anniversary meeting, when Sir Benjamin Brodie in his address reminded the Fellows that it was
" on the 28th of November just 200 years ago that several eminent individuals, who had
