Abstract
AT the anniversary meeting of the Royal Society, Sir Ernest Rutherford, the retiring president, announced that by an alteration of the existing statute regulating the election of fifteen fellows annually, and enacted in 1847, the number to be recommended for election in future would be seventeen. This new version of a particular statute takes us in retrospect to a very early period, namely, 1682, when it was decided that “Every person that would propose a candidate shall first give in his name to some of the Councell, that so in the next Councell it may be discoursed vivâ voce whether the person is known to be so qualified as in probability to be usefull to the Society. And if the Councell return no other Answer but that they desire further time to be acquainted with the gentleman proposed, the Proposer is to take that for an Answer”. Repeal of this reading occurred in 1728, the substance of alteration being that persons for election should first be proposed at a meeting of the Society, approved by the council, and recommended by three members, at least one of them a member of council. Soon after (1730) there was another change, mention of council being omitted, the requirement being that every person to be elected should be proposed and recommended at a meeting of the Society by three or more members, and qualifications were necessary to be set forth. The several elections of individuals were by ballot, not immediate, but at intervals.
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[News and Views]. Nature 126, 927–932 (1930). https://doi.org/10.1038/126927a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/126927a0