| 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: Captain Frederick John Owen Evans; John Evans; Albert Gunther; Daniel Hanbury; Thomas Henry Huxley; Joseph Norman Lockyer; Robert Mallet; Nevil Story Maskelyne; Charles Watkins Merrifield; Edmund Alexander Parkes; Lyon Playfair; John Scott Burdon Sanderson; William Spottiswoode; George Gabriel Stokes; Alexander William Williamson; the President, Joseph Dalton Hooker, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Dr. Parkes made and subscribed to the declaration in lieu of the oath. Deaths of the Reverend Thomas Burnet, Francis Kiernan, and J.B.J. D'Omalius d'Halloy. Minutes of the Eclipse Committee read and approved: £300 from the Donation Fund to be used for the cost of instruments supplied to the Eclipse Expedition. Draft letter to the first Lord of the Treasury, noting the Admiralty's willingness to assist in an Eclipse Expedition, offering one of their ships in the Gulf of Siam, and noting the co-operation of the Government of India, and of the King of Siam: the Royal Society will provide instruments by loan and purchase, and several gentlemen have offered to go as unpaid volunterers; but a further £1,000 is needed and requested. Minutes of the Arctic Committee were read and it was resolved to write a letter to the Admiralty requesting a grant of £250 to prepare an Arctic Manual: Professor T. Rupert Jones to be appointed general editor and to be paid an honorarium of £100. Letter from Robert Hall, Admiralty, 11 January 1875, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, Burlington House, full text entered into the minutes: the Admiralty is willing to appoint two naturalists to the Polar Expedition, from candidates recommended by the Royal Society: they will need to conform to Navy regulations and should undergo medical examination for physical fitness. Mr. Chichester Hart to be recommended as a naturalist to the Arctic Expedition. Statement on behalf of the Fire Insurance Committee, the Treasurer and Mr. Evans empowered to act on its recommendations. £50 from the Scientific Relief Fund to be placed in the hands of Mr. Hart or Dr. Booth for the benefit of an applicant. List of 49 candidates for Foreign Membership of the Royal Society, from which nine might be nominated at a future meeting. Letter from William Huggins, a sum of not more than £50 to be spent on a new clock for the Oliveira telescope in his care. Letter from J.H. Balfour, Royal Institution, Edinburgh, 28 December 1874, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: forwarding papers on a request to print nine-place tables of logarithms of up to one million at national expense. Letter of R.R.W. Lingen, Treasury Chambers, 9 July 1874, to the Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, full text entered into the minutes: asking for an estimate of the cost of printing the tables of logarithms and why this might not be done privately, or via subsidies from learned societies. After consideration, Council did not think it expedient to support the logarithm tables project at public expense. Leave granted to various applicants to copy manuscripts in the Society's archives, and to have the loan of drawings. A letter from Mr. Mallet referred to the Challenger Committee. Letter from Dr. Thudichum, the reply to be that it was not usual to communicate the opinions of referees to authors, but permission was granted for Dr. Thudichum to have a copy of his paper made. |