| 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: Neil Arnott; Rear-Admiral Frederick William Beechey; Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie; Arthur Cayley; William Fairbairn; John Miers; William Allen Miller; James Paget; Colonel Edward Sabine; William Sharpey; Rear-Admiral William Henry Smyth; John Stenhouse; George Gabriel Stokes; the President, John Wrottesley, 2nd Baron Wrottesley, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. Draft report on the application from the Admiralty regarding the proposed astronomical expedition to Teneriffe, full text entered into the minutes: the mode of observations has already been consider by Charles Piazzi Smyth, with the assistance of the Astronomer Royal, therefore it is unnecessary for the Royal Society to offer suggestions; however there is the opportunity to gather other types of information, including barometrical observations, the temperature and hygrometrical state of the air air ascending and descending the mountain, absorption of solar rays by the atmosphere, spectrographic observations of the Sun to determine atmospheric effects including the use of quartz apparatus and uranium coloured glass; and polarisation of light as seen from the mountain top. Letter from the Board of Trade communicating a report from Robert Fitzroy on steps taken by the Meteorological Department, requesting advice and suggestions on the nature of obersvations to be made and the means of making, recording and digesting them: the matter referred to a committee. Mr. Adams requested to be allowed the Philosophical Transactions since 1852, granted.
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