Birth control and the population question in England 1877–1930

of the Council strengthened. Scientific standards were also raised. Reform was too slow for firebrands like Babbage and his supporters. Dr Marie Boas Hall has presented a very balanced account of the ensuing debate on the decline of English science. No one today can accept without reservation Babbage's hysterical outburst on this subject. His views were based on a misapprehension of the function of the Royal Society, and on a misplaced sense of personal grievance. As pointed out by the writer, this conflict was really between the new "professional" scientists and the wealthy amateurs who were professional only in the spirit of the seventeenth-century foundation of the Royal Society-Babbage (a wealthy amateur himself) never recognized this. A thorough revision of the statutes eventually took place in 1847 under the Presidency of the Marquis of Northampton, and a truly scientific society for the scientific elite had then been created. In the second half of the century, the present-day administrative structure evolved, with the President acting as chairman of the governing Council, and the Treasurer and Secretaries as executive officers. In the second half of the book are described the Royal Society's encouragement of science through its honours and awards, the judicial election of Fellows from what later came to be called the "pure" and "applied" sciences, the awarding of grants first from the Wollaston Bequest and later the Government Grant, and in its capacity as adviser to the government on scientific matters. Also dealt with are the Society's interest in scientific exploration, and its relation with the emerging specialized scientific societies (on the whole, extremely harmonious). Singled out is the Society's long-standing interest in terrestrial magnetism and meteorology. Later expeditions in which the Society was active were more concerned with medicine and biology. The history concentrates on the organizational aspects of this work and not on its scientific content. The Royal Society was also actively involved in the dissemination of scientific information, and in the late 1850s, following up a suggestion by Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian Institution, began the Catalogue ofscientific papers. Such a catalogue was at that time a very novel concept. Dr Boas Hall has fully succeeded in her intention to produce a readable introductory survey, useful to both the Fellows of the Royal Society interested in their past, and to professional historians. We learn a great deal about the changing structure of English nineteenth-century science, as mirrored by the premier scientific society which, throughout these changes, remained true to its Royal charter to improve "naturall Knowledge".