| 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: George James Allman; John Ball; George Burrows; George Busk; Robert Bellamy Clifton; Heinrich Debus; Peter Martin Duncan; George Carey Foster; Francis Galton; Thomas Archer Hirst; William Hallowes Miller; Sir James Paget; Sir Edward Sabine; William Sharpey; William Spottiswoode; George Gabriel Stokes; Isaac Todhunter; Sir Charles Wheatstone; the President, George Biddell Airy, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. New members of Council made and subscribed to the declaration in lieu of the oath. £200 placed with the Library Committee for expenses of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers. Grants of publications. Re-appointment of the Library Committee and the Government Grant Committee, with a lists of members. The report of the Committee on the Scheme of a Scientific Circumnavigation Expedition was considered and the recommended application to Government was drafted: letter, the Royal Society, Burlington House, 8 December 1871, to the Secretary of the Admiralty, full text entered into the minutes; repeating the conclusions of the committee and expressing readiness to help with an expedition to leave England in 1872, the appointment of a committee deferred until a reply was received from Government. Letter from Douglas Galton, General Secretary of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 22 Albermarle Street, London, 11 November 1871, to the Secretary, the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: offering co-operation in the proposed circumnavigation expedition, with a committee deputed to act in compliance with their resolution; the reply to be that the Society will approach the Government, and in the event of a favourable reply, will form a committee which will include the gentlemen nominated. The communication from the Foreign Office on observations on the level of the North Sea at Heliogoland was considered and a committee appointed to report to Council. Letter from Rear-Admiral Alfred P. Ryder offering to place ten gold medals at the Society's disposal, to be conferred on junior naval officers over five years, for excellence in meteorological and marine work: the offer declined. Letter from E.D. Ashe, Director, Observatory, Quebec, 10 November 1871, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: sending photographs of the Sun, stating that he is working on solar rotation and drift, and offering to co-operate with Kew Observatory in taking photograms of the Sun on each day of the year: the reply to be that the importance of the work is recognised, but that the Royal Society will make no special recommendation. A bronze medal and printed volume were tabled, the gift of the Konigliche Ungarische Berg und Forst Akademie, thanks to be returned. A donation of two guineas made to the Parochial Schools of Mablethorpe. Dr. Clifford Allbutt was given leave to copy his paper in the archives. Proceedings volumes granted to the Armagh Observatory. |