Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society

Abstract

IN connexion with Dr. Wightman's article in Nature of Oct. 7, p. 23, on the relationship between the Royal Society and the Philosophical Transactions in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and his emphasis on the unofficial character of the Transactions, it may be interesting to note that the abridgement of these up to the year 1700, prepared by John Lowthorp, appears to have been officially sponsored by the Society. The fly-leaf of the third edition, printed in 1722 after the publication in the preceding year of a further abridgement of the Transactions for the years 1701–20 by Benjamin Motte, carried the following advertisement : “May 5, 1703. At a meeting of the Royal Society, Sir John Hoskyns, V.P. in the chair, Mr. Lowthrop Presented a Proposal for printing an Abridgement of the Philosophical Transactions. This Design was Approved by the Society and He was Desir'd to proceed therein.”