Royal Society

Royal Society The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, founded in 1660, is a learned society, the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences, and the oldest continuously existing scientific academy in the world. Quotes I had better say something here about this question of age, since it is particularly important for mathematicians. No mathematician should ever allow himself to forget that mathematics, more than any other art or science, is a young man's game. To take a simple illustration at a comparatively humble level, the average age of election to the Royal Society is lowest in mathematics. G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology Cambridge University Press pbk 8th printing of 1992 Canto 2004 0-521-42706-1 A Mathematician's Apology https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Mathematician_s_Apology.html?id=beImvXUGD-MC&pg=PA70 70–71 (foreword added in 1967 by C. P. Snow; 1st published in 1940) Another matter to which the society gave attention was the formation of a museum, the nucleus being “the collection of rarities formerly belonging to Mr Hubbard,” which, by a resolution of council passed on the 21st of February 1666, was purchased for the sum of £100. This museum, at one time the most famous in London, was presented to the trustees of the British Museum in 1781, upon the removal of the society to Somerset House. A certain number, however, of instruments and models of historical interest have remained in the possession of the society, and some of them, more peculiarly associated with its earlier years, are still preserved at Burlington House. The remainder have been deposited in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. Robert William Frederick Harrison, Royal Society, The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition vol. 23 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Royal_Society,_The Among the names of persons recorded as likely to promote the objects of the Society, a large proportion, as may have been observed, were attached to the profession of Medicine.Biology, or the Science of Life, more particularly as applied to man, was cultivated with considerable diligence at the period of the foundation of the Royal Society; having received an extraordinary impetus by Harvey’s immortal William Harvey#De Motus Cordis discovery of the circulation of the blood. Charles Richard Weld, History of the Royal Society, with memoirs of the presidents compiled from authentic documents 1848 vol. 1 of 2 Cambridge University Press 72 text at archive.org External links Category:Organisations based in the United Kingdom Category:Science