Definition of Royal Society, the

Royal Society, the: A venerable scientific society in England which in 1665 published one of the first 2 scientific journals in the world: the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society." The other was the "Journal des Scavants" (Scholars) which appeared in France the same year. From these 2 journals are descended all of the many thousands of scientific magazines today, including those devoted to the biomedical sciences and medicine in print and on tape, CD, videocassette and the Internet.