| 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: Francis Baily; Samuel Hunter Christie; John Frederick Daniell; Bryan Donkin; Thomas Galloway; Thomas Graham; Richard Owen; Richard Phillips; Peter Mark Roget; Major Edward Sabine; John Taylor; Robert Bently Todd; the Treasurer, John William Lubbock, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. Richard Owen made and signed the declaration in lieu of the oath. Resolved that the President communicate with the Rajah of Travancore soliciting magnetic observations from his territory. Major Sabine reported that M. Gaimard was contemplating an observatory in Finnmarken, near Hammerfest, with two Russian observers. Letter from Charles Edward Trevelyan, Treasury Chambers, 23 January 1840, to the Marquis of Northampton, full text entered into the minutes: respecting a grant for instruments to be used in the Expedition to the coasts and rivers of West Africa. M. Kropatscheks applied for the return of his prize essay, granted. Mr. Halliwell applied to remove some oriental manuscripts from the Library, for the purpose of cataloguing; leave granted, one manuscrpt at a time. Grates in the Council Room and Ante Room to be changed. Letter from Mr. Shuckard stating that the letter books contained 4,200 letters, cataloguing remuneration of £42 authorized. Mr. Christie requested to communicate with the Society of Antiquaries for the arrangment of gas lighting. Committee reports, not recommending expansions of their numbers, with the exception of the Committee on Geology, recommending Leonard Horner and Charles Darwin to the committee: resolved that no additions should be made at present. |