# Midland Naturalist/Volume 01/The Ray and Palæontographical Societies: An Appeal

The Ray and Palæontographical Societies: An Appeal.
By W. R. Hughes, Esq., F.L.S.
As the principal object of our Union is to promote the study of Natural History, I venture to bring before its members the claims which these admirable Societies have to their sympathy and support.
Perhaps no better illustrations could be given of the successful combination of numbers in effecting results, which are equally beyond the reach of private means on account of their costliness, and of public enterprise on account of the risk and uncertainty of sale, which many of the publications—mostly of a technical nature—would involve.
It is, therefore, not toe much to say that, except for the existence of these Societies, many most valuable works in Natural History—on which the talented authors have devoted years of labour as well as much expense—would never have been published.
Having, at the request of my friend, Mr. Wm. Mathews, jun., M.A., F.G.S., (who held the office of local honorary secretary to both Societies for upwards of twenty years,) undertaken to succeed him in the duty of collecting the subscriptions and distributing the volumes, and thus feeling more than an ordinary interest in the welfare of the Societies—this circumstance must be my apology for introducing the subject to the notice of the members of our Union, many of whom are doubtless more familiar than I am with the splendid works which they have issued.
​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:— ​President, Sir H. De la Beche; Treasurer, Mr. Searles V. Wood; Secretary, Professor Morris; and Auditors, Messrs. A. G. Melville and J. Tennant. The first list contained 362 subscribers, who have since increased—notwithstanding losses, deaths, &c.—to nearly 500 at the present time, and the amount expended in Monographs during the thirty years of the Society's existence has been £21,200, The plan of publication is similar to that adopted by the Ray Society. Each subscriber of one guinea is entitled to receive a quarto volume, containing from forty to fifty quarto plates and necessary letter-press. It is not found practicable, on account of the comprehensive character of the Monographs, to issue annually one complete work at a time, and consequently as many as six parts of various Monographs have sometimes been included in the volume. These may he collected and bound together subsequently or the series nay he left in chronological order as issued, easy reference being had to any Monograph m particular from the comprehensive indices prepared by the Secretary. In the volume for 1878 there will be eight parts, including two new subjects—the Liassic Ammonites and the Fishes allied to the modern Ceratodus; the completion of an old Monograph—that on the Merostomata; and a particularly interesting treatise on the relation between the Pleistocene mammalia and those of the present historic periods together, the estimated cost being £800. The following are among the more remarkable works published by this society:—The Carboniferous and Crag Foraminifera. the Fossil Corals, the Polyzoa of the Crag, the Echinodermata of the Oolitic and Cretaceous Formations, the Mollusca of the Crag, Eocene, and Great Oolite Strata; the Fossil Brachiopoda, the Fossil Merostomata, the Trilobites, the Belemnites, the Carboniferous Fishes, the Reptilia of the Liassic and Wealden Formations, and the Mammalia of the Mesozoic System, and of the Pleistocene and Crag Formations. The Council state in their last Report that "many years must elapse and many additional writers be enrolled ere the task of figuring the whole of the fossils of the British area be completed."
It has been attempted to be shown within the compass of this necessarily brief account what thorough good work the Ray and Palæontographical Societies are doing to advance the cause of Natural History. From the figures already quoted, it will be seen that an aggregate of more than forty-three thousand pounds, or an average of £1,300 per annum, has been expended by both Societies in little over thirty years, and this, be it remembered, has been purely voluntary, and without any help whatever from Government, but frequently supplemented by considerable pecuniary assistance from the talented authors, to whom the subscribers are indebted for the works themselves. It is evident that, with larger resources, the usefulness of both Societies might be greatly extended. At present, for each guinea subscription, the issue is one volume per annum, which might be increased to two if means justified the respective Councils, and thus the publication of many additional valuable works, some of which have appeared for years in the Prospectus, and then been withdrawn, could be undertaken. It would he a graceful act if every Society in our Union, not on the lists, would subscribe, as well as each working naturalist, ​individually. Everyone would find something to interest him in one or other of the Societies, and his influence, when once secured, would again influence others. Some of the earlier Monographs are out of print, and already fetch high prices in the second-hand booksellers' catalogues, and, therefore, upon the mere ground of "an investment" subscribers may rely that they will get their "money's worth." The number of subscribers within the area of our Union, a radius of eighty miles, is not more than thirty or forty to both Societies together; a very small number indeed, when we consider its wealth and the number of those who take an interest in Natural History. The subscriptions were due on 1st January last for the current year, so that each member now subscribing will be entitled to the forthcoming volume. Specimens of the recently published works may he seen at my offices, 23, Union Street, Birmingham, where I shall be glad to receive the subscriptions of intending subscribers. The Rev. Thomas Wiltshire, M.A., F.G.S., 25, Granville Park, Lewisham, S.E., is the able Secretary to both Societies; and he will, I am quite sure, with his usual courtesy, give any further information that may be desired.
This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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