4 ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE. [CHAP.
epithet of " scientific." I therefore look upon this fellowship as a " pass examination," so to speak, and from among the Fellows of the Royal Society I select those who have yet further qualifications. One of these is the fact of having earned a medal for scientific work ; another, of having presided over a learned Society, or a section of the British Association ; another, of having been elected on the council of the Royal Society ; another, of being professor at some important college or university. These and a few other similar signs of being appreciated by contemporary men of science, are the qualifications for which I have looked in selecting my list of typical scientific men. I have only deviated from these technical rules in two or three cases, where there appeared good reason for their relaxation and where the returns appeared likely to be of peculiar interest. On these principles I drew up a list of 180 men ; most of them were qualified on more than one count, and many on several counts. Also, the list appeared nearly exhaustive in respect to those men of mature age who live in or near London, since
