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The Royal Society: Science in the Making

Letter from Joseph Dalton Hooker, to George Gabriel Stokes, regarding a paper 'On the organization of the fossil plants of the coal-measures.—Part XI' by William Crawford Williamson

Reference number: RR/8/269

Date: 28 September 1880

Description

The author's attitude can be explained by his considering himself a 'morphologist' or 'physiologist', and considers the referees as the reverse. Asks George Gabriel Stokes to think of a similar situation in his field, where a mathematical paper is written 'by men who only think they have this qualification'. If it wasn't for the illustrations, an abstract in the Proceedings would cover the understanding of the paper. Will think things over and report back. Will report verbally on the paper by John Bennet Lawes, Joseph Henry Gilbert and Maxwell Tylden Masters ['Agricultural, botanical, and chemical results of experiments on the mixed herbage of permanent meadow, conducted for more than twenty years in succession on the same land. — Part. II. The botanical results' doi:10.1098/rstl.1882.0029 Vol.173 1882].

Subject: Botany, Geology, Palaeontology

[Published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1881]

Reference number
RR/8/269
Earliest possible date
28 September 1880
Physical description
Letter on paper
Page extent
2 pages
Format
Manuscript

Creator name

Joseph Dalton Hooker

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Citation

Joseph Dalton Hooker, Letter from Joseph Dalton Hooker, to George Gabriel Stokes, regarding a paper 'On the organization of the fossil plants of the coal-measures.—Part XI' by William Crawford Williamson, 28 September 1880, RR/8/269, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/rr_8_269/letter-from-joseph-dalton-hooker-to-george-gabriel-stokes-regarding-a-paper-on-the-organization-of-the-fossil-plants-of-the-coal-measurespart-xi-by-william-crawford-williamson, accessed on 17 February 2026

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  • Referee Reports

    This collection contains reports on scientific papers submitted for publication to the Royal Society. Started in 1832 when the system was formalised, it is a record of the origins of peer review publishing in practice.

    Dates: 1832 - 1954

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