Annals of the Royal Society Club - By Sir Archibald Geikie.
(Macmillan and Co. 18s. not.)—The Fellows of the Royal Society have had a dining.elub since 1743, and their ex-President has compiled its annals in a volume, Well illudrated with portraits, which. with the help of the index, might almost servo as a biographical dictionary of the men of science of two centuries. In Its early years the Society was far snore catholic than it is now, end, like the French Academy, elected men of rank and eminent persons who had no special qualifications ; Sir Francis Deehwood, of the Hell-fire Club, who described himself as " tine worst Chancellor of tho Exchequer that ever appeared," could write F.R.S. after his name. The dining-club was even less exclusive ; to its Gargantuan feaets, at which plum-pudding was served almost every Thursday, it welcomed any distinguished native or foreigner, and did not disdain the Eskimos, Mohawks, and South Sea Islanders whom Pringle, its President, delighted to honour. Thus the first half of the book is more entertaining for the layman than the second half. It is curious that Dr. Johnson was never the guest of the club, though Boswell's father attended one dinner.
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