| 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; James Booth; Benjamin Collins Brodie; Charles Brooke; Samuel Hunter Christie; William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen; John Peter Gassiot; Thomas Graham; Joseph Dalton Hooker; William Hopkins; Henry Bence Jones; George Newport; Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Ellison Portlock; James Meadows Rendel; Colonel Edward Sabine; William Sharpey; Captain William Henry Smyth; Nathaniel Wallich; John Wrottesley, 2nd BaronWrottesley; the President, William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. The seal of the Royal Society was affixed to the diplomas of eight Foreign Members. List of candidates for Fellowship to be recommended for election to the Royal Society at the next election. Resolved that a committee be created to consider what modifications to the trusts of Sir Clifford Wintringham's bequest would enable Council to distribute the funds to promore the interests of science: the committee to take the opinion of 'some eminent Chancery Barrister' on the question of whether consent would be given by the Court of Chancery; membership of the committee listed. Mr. Brodie gave notice that he would move at the next meeting, that in the adjudication of medals, preference should be given to branches of science which had hitherto been prescribed, and that medals should be awarded for original scientific research only. |