The early 19th century has been seen as a time of decline for the
society; of 662 fellows in 1830, only 104 had contributed to the Philosophical Transactions. The same year, Charles Babbage published Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of Its Causes,
which was deeply critical of the Society. The scientific Fellows of the
Society were spurred into action by this, and eventually James South
established a Charters Committee "with a view to obtaining a
supplementary Charter from the Crown", aimed primarily at looking at
ways to restrict membership. The Committee recommended that the election
of Fellows take place on one day every year, that the Fellows be
selected on consideration of their scientific achievements and that the
number of fellows elected a year be limited to 15. This limit was
increased to 17 in 1930 and 20 in 1937;[15] it is currently[when?] 52.[28]
This had a number of effects on the Society: first, the Society's
membership became almost entirely scientific, with few political Fellows
or patrons. Second, the number of Fellows was significantly
reduced—between 1700 and 1850, the number of Fellows rose from
approximately 100 to approximately 750. From then until 1941, the total
number of Fellows was always between 400 and 500.[29]
The period did lead to some reform of internal Society statutes, such
as in 1823 and 1831. The most important change there was the
requirement that the Treasurer publish an annual report, along with a
copy of the total income and expenditure of the Society. These were to
be sent to Fellows at least 14 days before the general meeting, with the
intent being to ensure the election of competent Officers by making it
readily apparent what existing Officers were doing. This was accompanied
by a full list of Fellows standing for Council positions, where
previously the names had only been announced a couple of days before. As
with the other reforms, this helped ensure that Fellows had a chance to
vet and properly consider candidates.[30] The Society's financial troubles were finally resolved in 1850, when a government grant-in-aid
of £1,000 a year was accepted. This was increased to £4,000 in 1876,
with the Society officially acting merely as the trustee for these
funds, doling them out to individual scientists.[31]
This grant has now grown to over £47 million, some £37 million of which
is to support around 370 fellowships and professorships.[32][33]
By 1852, the congestion at Somerset House
had increased thanks to the growing number of Fellows. Therefore, the
Library Committee asked the Council to petition Her Majesty's Government
to find new facilities, with the advice being to bring all the
scientific societies, such as the Linnean and Geological societies, under one roof. In August 1866, the government announced their intention to refurbish Burlington House and move the Royal Academy
and other societies there. The Academy moved in 1867, while other
societies joined when their facilities were built. The Royal Society
moved there in 1873, taking up residence in the East Wing.[34]
The top floor was used as accommodation for the Assistant Secretary,
while the library was scattered over every room and the old caretaker's
apartment was converted into offices. One flaw was that there was not
enough space for the office staff, which was then approximately eighty.
When, for example, the Society organised the British contribution to the
International Geophysical Year in 1954, additional facilities had to be found for the staff outside Burlington House.[35]
On 22 March 1945, the first female Fellows were elected to the Royal
Society. This followed a statutory amendment in 1944 that read "Nothing
herein contained shall render women ineligible as candidates", and was
contained in Chapter 1 of Statute 1. Because of the difficulty of
co-ordinating all the Fellows during the Second World War, a ballot on making the change was conducted via the post, with 336 Fellows supporting the change and 37 opposing.[36] Following approval by the Council, Marjory Stephenson, Kathleen Lonsdale and Edith Bülbring were elected as Fellows.[36]
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