133 
1860-70] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 
connected with the Society, while the importance of directing the 
attention of Fellows from time to time to the labours of Astronomers 
in other countries has not been lost sight of. . . . A plan has 
been carried into effect by which the Monthly Notices will become 
an integral part of the volumes of the Memoirs. All are aware 
that, for some years past, an octavo volume of Monthly Notices has 
always been given with each volume of Memoirs sold. It has been 
found that, by re-imposing the type of the Monthly Notices into a 
quarto form, with double columns, it is practicable to form an edition 
of the Notices which may be stitched up with the Memoirs so as 
actually to form part of the volume. The expense of printing the 
annual report of each year twice will thus be avoided. It has some 
times been suggested that it was unnecessary to make the annual 
report a part of the volume of Memoirs, but those who have been 
students of old history have always protested against the omission. 
They have represented that it is a very serious defect of the older 
Transactions that they supply no materials for the histories, of 
their several societies ; from which it not unfrequently arises that 
the papers themselves are unaccompanied by information necessary 
to their being properly understood as historical monuments. Both 
ends are now made to meet; the annual report, and much current 
information besides, form a part of the very volume which contains 
the larger Memoirs ; and the annual report is not printed twice.” 
These arrangements were carried into effect in i860, and the 
publication of the Monthly Notices was continued in octavo form, 
and also in the quarto form in double columns. Thus volume 19 
of the Monthly Notices appeared as an appendix to volume 28 of 
the Memoirs in i860 ; and so on until 1867, when it was decided 
to discontinue the quarto form of the Monthly Notices. Thus 
volume 36 of the Memoirs is the last to contain the reimposed 
Monthly Notices, and volume 27 of the latter is the last that was 
reimposed. We may conclude these references to the adminis 
trative side of our publications by stating that the volumes of 
the Monthly Notices for the last two years in the decade con 
tained 325 and 231 pages respectively, large compared with the 
earliest volumes, however small in comparison with our recent 
volumes, some of which run to 700 or 800 pages. 
Robert Grant resigned his duties as editor of the Monthly 
Notices in 1859 November, on his appointment to the Professorship 
of Astronomy at Glasgow. He was the author of the well-known 
History of Physical Astronomy, published in 1852, a book of per 
manent value ; and to his literary tastes and his discernment in 
historical matters we owe a considerable debt. He introduced into 
our publications brief notices of valuable astronomical papers that 
had appeared in foreign serial publications. He was succeeded by 
Arthur Cayley in the editorship of the Society’s publications.