Early Scientific Journals in Victoria
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In the Melbourne daily newspaper The Melbourne Morning Herald, for 20 April 1855, p. 2. there is a detailed advertisement by James J. Blundell & Co., the publishers, which reads "Transactions of the Philosophical Society of Victoria, for the year ending in July, 1855, will be published in four numbers, making one volume . . . Persons desirous of becoming regular subscribers . . . are requested to send in their names . . . on or before the 1st of June, 1855 . . ." Of the papers listed for inclusion three had already been published previously in the Vol. 1, No. 1. of 1854 (item B above) and would therefore be reprinted in the proposed new, four-part volume.
The Blundell advertisement continued to be published daily in the same newspaper until about mid-May. It indicates a clear intention as at April/May 1855 to publish volume one of the Transactions in four separate numbers. However, I have found no evidence of publication of this volume in parts after this date, but only of publication of the whole volume complete in one issue.
An original copy of the complete volume of Transactions is in the library of the Royal Society of Victoria. It has the original stiff paper (or light card) cover intact, and this is clearly printed "Vol. 1", without any number, and "for the past year, ending in July, 1855." An introductory note, dated September 1855, states that the volume contains papers read from the Society's ". . .inauguration in August, 1854, to its amalgamation with the Victorian Institute . . .".The included transactions consist of pp. 1-265, pages 1-33 being an exact repeat of those pages in Vol. 1. No. 1 (1854), while p. 34 occupies the reverse of p. 33 and subsequent pages follow on. This issue is therefore a complete volume which reprints the transactions and proceedings of No. 1 (1854) and also adds those from subsequent meetings up to July 1855.
Organisations in Australian Science at Work - Philosophical Society of Victoria
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Royal Society of Victoria |  |
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