| Description | Press cuttings and other printed information concerning the Royal Society. Compiled by the organisation's staff. Cuttings include accounts of the Royal Society's conversaziones, anniversary meetings and other events. Several of the pieces collected in this period are illustrated. Other content includes reports on colour blindness and the views of Silvanus Thompson (p.4); George Gabriel Stokes on personal identity (pp.5-6); on the discovery of Cook relics in the home of Sir Joseph Banks and the sale of James Cook's Endeavour journal (pp.18-19); Thomas Henry Huxley and Edwin A Abbott (pp.19-20); Huxley and the Salvation Army (pp.25-27); criticism of the Royal Society (pp.54-63). Other topics are highly varied but include the related scientific titles and their abuse (p.50 and p.54); and experiments on living animals (p.52). There are some court reports and letters to the editors of the various newspapers are also collected. A manuscript index appears at the end of the volume.
Generally, the cuttings are attributed to the source newspaper and dated in manuscript. The volume contains several blank pages, usually the verso pages of the book. Original manuscript pagination omits these blanks. A paper label on the cover is inscribed: 'December 20, 1889 to March 21, 1893. Royal Society Scrap-Book. General.' |