Abstract
IN the present century we have grown so accustomed to the supremacy of the Royal Society in all matters scientific that it is difficult to realize it has not always possessed its high reputation. Such is its authority and its high seriousness to-day that it is hard to believe there have been times when it has been scoffed at and derided for the triviality of its pursuits. Yet this is the case. The Society derives its reputation from the scientific eminence of its members ; yet there have been long periods in its history when a majority of those elected to its fellowship have not been men of science at all, when election has been a mark of social rather than of scientific distinction.
Scientists and Amateurs
A History of the Royal Society. By Dorothy Stimson. Pp. xiii + 270 + 20 plates. (London : Sigma Books, Ltd., 1949.) 15s. net.
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MARTIN, T. Scientists and Amateurs. Nature 163, 857–858 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163857a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163857a0
