The Ray Society was founded in the year 1844 and "had its origin in a wish expressed by the late Dr. Johnston, of Berwick, to some of his scientific friends that some means could be devised for printing such works in Natural History as stand in need of extraneous assistance to secure their publication." Many of the honoured pioneers who constituted the first Council—names then and since celebrated in almost every branch of Natural History—have passed away, but some happily survive. Among the latter may be mentioned Professors Babington, Balfour, Busk, and Owen, the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, and Sir P. de Malpas Grey-Egerton, Bart. The first officers were—President, Professor Bell; Secretary, Dr. Lankester; Treasurer, Dr. Bowerbank; and Auditors, Messrs. E. J. Quekett and Robert Warington. The number of members was 225, the subscription being one guinea each. The first annual meeting was held on 2nd October, 1844. Since that date the number of members has increased to more than 100 at the present time, and a sum of about £22,700 has, during the thirty-three years that have elapsed, been expended in the publication of thirty-three Standard Works or Monographs in various departments of Natural History. It would be interesting to append a list of these, but space will not permit, nevertheless, I cannot refrain from mentioning the Monographs of the Nudibranchiate Mollusca, by the late Messrs. Alder and Hancock; the Cirripedia, by Dr. Darwin: the Spongiadæ, by the late Dr. Bowerbank; the Oceanic Hydrozoa, by Professor Huxley; and the Fresh Water Polyzoa and Tubularian Hydroids, by Professor Allman, (for the last of which the Royal Society's Gold Medai has recently been awarded.) as being among the most elaborate and costly works that heave ever been issued. To give an idea of the liberal way in which these works are produced it may be interesting to mention that the cast of the publication of the last named work—without, of course, a single farthing being paid to the learned author—inclusive of paper, printing, engraving, colouring, and binding was £900.
The following volumes of this Society are nearly ready, viz., Spongladæ, Vol IV., Aphides, Vol. IV; and the Copepoda, Vol. I.; and many other interesting works, are contemplated.
It is probable that the success which attended the establishment of the Ray Society may have induced geologists to wish for a similar organisation for the publication of works on palæontology, which scarcely came within the scope of the operations of the former Society, For this they had not long to wait. “The Paleontographical Society was established in the year 1847, chiefly through the exertions of the late Dr. Bowerbank, for the purpose of figuring and describing the whole of the British Fossils, and bas since that period issued thirty-one quarto volumes, containing 8,552 pages and 1,259 quarto plates, and has described 4,623 species of British Fossils, illustrating the plants, corals, echinadermata, crustacea, mollusca, fishes, reptilia, mamnmalia, &c., of the geological formations.” Like the elder Society, the Palæontographical has lost many of its original members who formed the first Council. Those who survive are Professor Bell, Sir P. de Malpas Grey-Egerton, Bart., Professor Prestwich, and Mr. Alfred White. The first officers were:—
