T.H. Huxley.
[Writing on the same day to Sir J. Evans, he proposed a considerable alteration in the duties of the Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society.]
You know that I served a seven years' apprenticeship as Secretary, and that experience gave me very solid grounds for the conviction that, with the present arrangements, a great deal of the time of the Secretaries is wasted over the almost mechanical drudgery of proof-reading.
[He suggests new arrangements, and proceeds:—]
At the same time it would be very important to adopt some arrangement by which the "Transactions" papers can be printed independently of one another.
Why should not the papers be paged independently and be numbered for each year. Thus—"Huxley Idleness and Incapacity in Italy." "Phil. Trans." 1885 6.
People grumble at the delay in publication, and are quite right in doing so, though it is impossible under the present system to be more expeditious, and it is not every senior secretary who would slave at the work as Stokes does…
But it is carrying coals to Newcastle to talk of such business arrangements as these to you.
The only thing I am strong about, is the folly of going on cutting blocks with our Secretarial razors any longer.
I am afraid I cannot give a very good account of myself.