589 Papers contributed by them.
Now the immediate effect of printing such a list would be the division of the Society into two classes.

Supposing two or more papers necessary for placing a Fellow in the first class, that class would only consist of seventy-two members, which is nearly the same as the number of those of the Institute of France.

If only those who had contributed three or more were admitted, then this class would be reduced to fifty-one.

In either of these cases it would obviously become a matter of ambition to belong to the first class; and a more minute investigation into the value of each paper would naturally take place before it was admitted into the Transactions.

Or it might be established that such papers only should be allowed to count, as the Committee, who reported them as fit to be printed, should also certify.