Abstract
SIR HENRY DALE completed his term of office as president of the Royal Society at the anniversary meeting on November 30, and the main part of his address is printed elsewhere in this issue (p. 677). Speaking of domestic affairs, Sir Henry recorded the Society's thanks to the several people who undertook the guardianship of its historical treasures, now safely returned to London. He also announced that the Society is to increase the number of annual elections to twenty-five. Sir Henry himself, when he was a secretary of the Society, had a part in the movement which led in 1931 to the increase of maximum annual admissions to seventeen from fifteen, at which figure it had remained from the time when limitation was imposed eighty-three years before. In 1937, the number was raised to twenty; and now it is to be made twenty-five. This action has been taken in recognition of the recent rapid growth in number of those who have produced evidence of real scientific achievement. Sir Henry also referred to the election this year of two women to the fellowship of the Royal Society, following an alteration to the statutes to elucidate a legal position which had existed since 1919. He admitted that the decision was contested, but expressed his belief that the change was a normal adjustment of the Society's practice "to the growth in extent and distinction of women's contribution to the advancement of science by research".
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Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society. Nature 156, 684 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/156684a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/156684a0