| 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; Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie; William Benjamin Carpenter; Arthur Cayley; John Miers; William Allen Miller; 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. Letter from James Wilson, Treasury Chambers, 23 June 1856, to the President of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: acknowledging Wrottesley's letter and that the necessary measures for the Society's occupation of Burlington House were being put into effect as soon as the required alterations to the building could be made. Report of the Committee to consider the Board of Trade letter on the subject of marine meteorological observations, full text entered into the minutes: the proposed forms of log should be a matter for the Head of the Department of Meteorology; Fitzroy is justified in his doubts on whether he is able to exercise sole responsibility for the conduct of the department; one of the most important objects of the Meteorological Department is the procurement of data on the force and direction of winds in those parts of the Atlantic Ocean traversed by ships and to this end self-recording anemometric instruments might be placed on island stations; such an instrument is now available at Kew Observatory and the same model might be procured at less than £50. Resolved that a committee be formed to carry out arrangement for the removal of the Royal Society to Burlington House. Resolved that the President and Officers be authorised to print abstracts of papers in Proceedings during the recess. James Paget was appointed to deliver the Croonian Lecture. M. Scheutz placed on the list of candidates for the Copley Medal for the construction of a calculating machine. The terms of M. Pasteur's Rumford Medal citation were altered. Read a letter from Sir James South on the subject of Leeuwenhoek's microscopes. Application on behalf of the Library of the Royal Institution for copies of books acceded to. Application from Dr. Balfour for an extension of time for his admission into the Fellowship, granted. Sir William Snow Harris requested to be allowed the Philosophical Transactions for 1851 and 1852, granted. |