| 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; Sir John Barrow; Thomas Bell; Samuel Hunter Christie; John Frederick Daniell; Bryan Donkin; Thomas Galloway; Thomas Graham; Francis Kiernan; Richard Phillips; Peter Mark Roget; the Treasurer, John William Lubbock, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. 500 copies of the Statutes ordered to be printed. Letter from Thomas F. Colby, Ordnance Map Office, Tower, 11 August 1840, to the Marquis of Northampton, full text entered into the minutes: noting that the great theodolite belonging to the Board of Ordnance and being employed in Yorkshire was in a poor state of repair, Colby asks to borrow Ramsden's great theodolite, presented to the Society by George III and promising its return; request granted. Letter of Captain John Norton regarding a percussion shell referred to the Committee for Physics. Letter from M. D. Paret of Geneva requesting a judgement from the Society on the value of his investigations in physics, declined. Resolutions requesting reports from the Committees of Physics, including Meteorology, and from the Committee of Geology and Mineralogy, on papers published up to 1840 that might be suitable for the award of Royal Medals. Resolution for a report from the Committees of Physics, including Meteorology, and from the Committee of Chemistry, to consider any science worthy of the award of a Rumford Medal. Resolution referring to all scientific committees the question of the award of a Copley Medal. Ordered that a stand for cases of instruments to be made according to an estimate of £11. Letter from Mr. J. M. Trew, 28 July 1840, requesting suggestions for scientific inquiries to be made by the Niger Expedition, a copy of the instructions drawn up for Antarctic voyages to be given to Trew. Alfred Smee applied for leave to copy his paper and illustrations on the structure of bones, granted. Letter from M. Savart acknowledging his receipt of the diploma of Foreign Membership. List of salaries for Officers and Staff orderd to be paid and list of bills ordered to be paid.
|