| Description | Printed minutes containing matters laid before Council, the Royal Society's governing body of Fellows, with records of decisions taken.
Commencing with a list of Council members present: Thomas Bell; the Reverend James Booth; Warren De La Rue; Thomas Graham; William Robert Grove; Joseph Dalton Hooker; Thomas Henry Huxley; Henry Bence Jones; the Reverend Baden Powell; William Sharpey; Admiral William Henry Smyth; George Gabriel Stokes; William Tite; Charles Wheatstone; the Vice-President and Treasurer, Colonel Edward Sabine, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. Letter from Benjamin Oliveira, 8 Upper Hyde Park Street, London, 10 July 1854, to Samuel Hunter Christie, Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: he wishes to remark that his intention in presenting the £50 to the Royal Society was to apply the sum to a specific investigation, or as a reward for an inquiry, and ot continue this annually or periodically; the premium would have an identity of its own, which it would not when added to other funds; he does not wish to underrate the purpose sought by Dr. Herschel and will remit the amount if Council's opinion remains unchanged. Draft letter from the Secretary, the Royal Society, n.d., to Benjamin Oliveira, full text entered into the minutes: the sum of £50 was applied, with other funds, for the construction of photographic equipment, since no other scientific object presented itself; if the annual donation continued, the next two years' funds might be used to replace the £100 in the plan referred to, and the apparatus would bear Oliveira's name. Letter from Samuel Hunter Christie resigning the office of Secretary: George Gabriel Stokes was recommended as a replacement. List of President, Officers and Members of Council to be recommended to the Royal Society for service in the ensuing year. Adjudication of Royal Society Medals: the Copley Medal to be awarded to Professor Joahannes Muller, particularly for his researches into the embryology of the echinodermata; a Royal Medal awarded to Dr. Hofmann, for researches in organic chemistry; a Royal Medal to Joseph Dalton Hooker; the consideration of the Rumford Medal award was postponed. |