And, finally, with increased facilities for communication and travel, the great international societies of to-day would be produced--the natural outcome of the neighborly meetings of the primitive mediaeval investigators.
In Italy, at about the time of Galileo, several small societies were formed.

One of the most important of these was the Lyncean Society, founded about the year 1611, Galileo himself being a member.

This society was succeeded by the Accademia del Cimento, at Florence, in 1657, which for a time flourished, with such a famous scientist as Torricelli as one of its members.
In England an impetus seems to have been given by Sir Francis Bacon's writings in criticism and censure of the system of teaching in colleges.

It is supposed that his suggestions as to what should be the aims of a scientific society led eventually to the establishment of the Royal Society.

He pointed out how little had really been accomplished by the existing institutions of learning in advancing science, and asserted that little good could ever come from them while their methods of teaching remained unchanged.