| 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; George Busk; James Fergusson; Thomas Archer Hirst; Thomas Henry Huxley; William Hallowes Miller; Rear-Admiral George Henry Richards; Henry Enfield Roscoe; William Sharpey; Francis Sibson; George Gabriel Stokes; Major-General Richard Strachey; Isaac Todhunter; Sir Charles Wheatstone; the President, Sir George Biddell Airy, in the chair; followed by William Spottiswoode, Treasurer and Vice-President, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Letter from Joseph Dalton Hooker, Royal Gardens, Kew, 26 February 1873, to William Spottiswoode, full text entered into the minutes: accepting the role of President, on condition that the appointment would be considered carefully every year, and that it would not be long before the occupant of the chair was from another branch of science. Letter from Henry Bence Jones, 84 Brook Street, 18 March 1873, full text entered into the minutes: donating his marble bust of Michael Faraday, a copy of a commission by Mr. Walker, the engineer, made by Mr. Noble, thanks returned. Deaths of John Edye and Sir Frederic Madden reported. The Treasurer reported that the sculpture bust of Mary Somervlle had been safely returned from the Royal Academy. The Treasurer reported on an extension to the arcade works at Burlington House, for which the Officers had given their assent. The Treasurer reported on letters received from Few and Company regarding the Handley bequest, with actions recommended. Letter from the Charity Commissioners recommending the Churchwardens of St. Leonards, Shoreditch, as Trustees of the Fairchild Lecture Fund. List of 55 candidates from which three might be nominated for election as Foreign Members of the Royal Society. Professor A.W. Williamson to be requested to allow himself to be nominated as Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society at the next Anniversary Meeting. The letter of the President of the Royal Geographical Society relating to Arctic Exploration read at the last meeting was considered: a committee to be appointed to confer with the Arctic Committee of the Royal Geographical Society on the scientific objects to be gained from further Arctic exploration. Letter from the Warden of Standards, resolved that it was important that copies of standards should be kept in different locations. Memorandum from Colonel J.F. Tennant, Calcutta, 20 January 1873, on the establishment of an Observatory for Astronomical Physics and recommending Simla, India as a possible site, with estimates of the costs involved, in rupees. Letter from Mr. Rogers Field, resolved that the contingent vote of £100 from the Government Grant be sanctioned. £25 from the Donation Fund granted to Professor W.C. Williamson for research in the fossil plants of coal measures. Dr. B.W. Richardson appointed to deliver the Croonian Lecture. Plates from a paper by J. Marshall to be lent to the author and two sanskrit manuscripts to be loaned to Dr. Reinhold Rost. A copy of the Great Melbourne Telescope correspondence granted to the U.S Naval Observatory, Washington and the Catalogue of Scientific Papers volume 2 to Trinity College Library, Dublin. |