In 1701, the society, which till this time had continued to hold its meetings in Gresham College, removed to a spacious house which it purchased in Crane Court, Fleet Street. This house afforded room for the meetings, for the library, and for the museum of curiosities ; and here the reading of papers and the exhibition of experiments took place, as before, till the year 1782, when the government assigned to the society apartments in Somerset House. On removing to the latter place, it became necessary to dispose of the museum for want of room ; but this inconvenience was obviated in 1826, when the rooms formerly used by the commissioners of the lottery were given up to the society. The rooms in Somerset Homo were resumed by the government in 1857, other and more commodious apartments being granted in their stead in Burlington House, Piccadilly.
In 1703 Sir Isaac Newton WM appointed president of the society, and this honourable post was held by the greatest of philosophers till his death, which happened in 1727. Tho experiments of Newton on telescopes and on light and colours were amongst the first subjects which gave a value to the ' Transactions' of the society; and the latter showed its sense of the honour which it derived from being able to number him among its fellows, by publishing in 1686, the first edition of the ' Principia: [Petsctem.) The service rendered to the cause of science from the beginning of the 18th century has earned for the society the respect and gratitude of every man to whom the advancement of the human intellect is an object of high consideration. The society numbers among those who are and who have been its members some of the brightest ornaments of philosophy and human nature; and it may be said that a large pro portion of the discoveries by which the face of science has been changed have been nut& known to the world through the papers published in the volumes of its Transactions.' It has been said above that the Philosophical Transactions' were at first published In monthly numbers: these were afterwards collected into voluintssand, from the commencement in 1665 to the year 1800,the work consisted of 90 volumes. From that time a volume has come out annually, and, up to the present year (1861), 150 volumes have been published. It appears that, till the 47th volume was published, the printing of the Transactions' was entirely the act of the several secretaries, the society never interesting itself further in that matter than by occasionally recommending the revival of the publication, when from any circumstsuice it appeared to be suspended. But in 1752 a com
mittee wits appointed to consider the papers which were read before the society, and to select such as should be judged most proper to appear in the future Transactions,' and this practice has ever since been followed. The society, however, constantly declares that it never, as a body, gives its opinion on any subject, whether of nature or art, which comes before it, the facts anti reaaonings stated in their papers resting entirely on the credit and judgment of their respective authors.
honorary recompenses have been liberally bestowed by the society on penione distinguished by their discoveries in pure science or in phi lueophy. The first occasion on which the society became possessed of the maws of so rewarding merit arose from a bequest of Sir Godfrey Copley. one of its members; this gentleman, at his death in 1709, left 10o/., the interest of which, or 61., was to be given annually to the person who, in the course of the preceding year, had written the best paper on any subject relating to experimental philosophy. The dona tion has since been put hi the more liberal form of a gold medal, and it is awarded indifferently either to foreigners or Englishmen, for the sake of encouraging an honourable competition among the philosophers sf all countries.
In 1796, Sir Benjamiu Thomsen (Count Rumford) presented to the society 10001. in the 3 per cent. stock, for the purpose of forming, with the interest for two years ('3a), a biennial prize to be given for the most important discovery, or the most useful improvement, inado during the two preceding years on heat or on light. The prize is given in the form of a gold and a silver medal, both of which are struck in the same die. During several of the biennial periods no opportunity occurred of awarding the prize, and at these times the interest was added to the principal arm. The interest of this additional sum is always given with the two medals ; and the first who received the prize was Count' Rumford himself, in !SOO, and the second was Professor Leslie (1804). In 1825 his Majesty George 1V., for the pur pose of further promoting the objects and progress of science, made to the society an annual grant of 100 guineas in order to establish two prize medals, which are to be presented to the persons who during the year shall make the most important discovery in science or art ; and in lf,26 the medals were awarded to Mr. John Dalton and Mr. James 15017.